Medykalizacja opieki okołoporodowej w Polsce
Medicalization of perinatal care in Poland

Summary/Abstract: There has been a lot of changes in the provision of care for women during the perinatal period and newborns since the early 90s past century. These changes are an example occurring in parallel to the process of medicalization and the tendency to demedicalization. The aim of this paper is to analyse these changes from the perspective of the theory of medicalization. In this article we analyse three effects of medicalization: increasing number of unjustified medical interventions, ignoring the needs of childbearing women and reducing the role of midwives. I assert that we observe two contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, the medicalization of perinatal care is promoted by physicians. On the other hand, the demedicalization has its advocates among women and midwives. The question then arises whether these tendencies are exclusive or they are an example of democratization in the field of perinatal care, which are increasingly influenced by active in civil society, various pressure groups.

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