Violência obstétrica: a episiotomia de rotina como uma violação a sexualidade e ofensa à integridade física da mulher.

Abstract

Among different forms of violence against women it is the obstetric violence which although very comum it is rarely discussed. In this terms, the present work seeks to detail this type of violence by conceptualizing the term, detailing its various forms and analyzing the inappropriate conduct of doctors and other health professionals towards pregnant women, parturients and puerperal women. However, the focus of the research is on the routine practice of episiotomy which consists of increasing the baby's passage channel by an incision in the perineum. This paper seeks not only to study this procedure but it focus on the following question: must the doctor be liable for personal injury if he performs the episiotomy without being necessary or not observing the patient's condition leading to serious consequences? Then, this question will be unraveled in order to find the context it was used in and whether or not it is a crime. The search for answers for this issue has resulted in a qualitative research that has been made under a deductive perspective with focus on the problem’s core which consists of analyzing the personal injury crime drawing a parallel with the episiotomy consequences. Therefore, jurisprudence related to the object of study has been analyzed in addition to the bibliographic literature and articles. The relevance of the research is to discuss ways to protect women from having their physical integrity and health offended at the time of birth and help them to know how to detect the occurrence of obstetric violence. It can therefore be concluded that when the content of the decisions handed by the courts is related to the theoretical framework developed in this study it was possible to observe that although there are subsidies for criminal responsibility of those who routinely perform the perineal incision causing damage to the health of the parturient, the Brazilian legal system has gaps regarding this type of sanction.