“I’m going to put [my] hand in”

a dialogical analysis of obstetric violence against a black woman in Bahia

Abstract

Structural racism in Brazil is a phenomenon deeply rooted in institutions and social organization, sustained by historical relations of domination and exclusion. This racist structure even affects spaces that should be places of care and support, such as hospitals. Based on this understanding, this study aims to investigate the discursive construction of the body of the pregnant black woman, analyzing how different voices — social, medical, and media — contribute to silencing, erasing, or minimizing reports of obstetric violence, through discourses that naturalize this practice. This is a qualitative research approach, according to Godoy (1995), which seeks to understand the meanings attributed to human experiences in specific social contexts. The choice of this approach is justified by the complexity of the phenomenon analyzed, traversed by historical, political, and symbolic dimensions that do not fit into previously established categories. Methodologically, it is configured as a case study (Yin, 2005), suitable for the in-depth investigation of contemporary phenomena, especially when the boundaries between the object and its context are not clearly delimited. The theoretical framework includes the studies of Lugones (2010) and Davis (2016), who address gender coloniality and intersectionality; Volóchinov (2017) and Bakhtin (2016), who discuss language as an ideological practice; and Leal et al. (2017), who reflect on obstetric violence from a racial perspective. The analysis showed that obstetric violence suffered by black women goes beyond the moment of childbirth, constituting itself as a statement permeated by discourses that precede and follow the event, which reinforces its structural and institutionalized character. The discourses analyzed reveal systematic dehumanization, marked by mistreatment, silencing, and denial of basic rights, composing a symbolic and physical violence sustained by historical power relations that still operate today. The social voices, in turn, express values ​​deeply rooted in everyday practices, directly contributing to the construction of meanings about the body of the pregnant black woman and highlighting how this body is the target of control, exclusion, and subordination in the field of health.