Brazil has become a country known as having one of the most extreme examples of the consequences of thospital-based medicalization of delivery care, while a model of humanization of birth was developed in the State of Ceara in the 1970s. The Government of Japan, through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA.,collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Health of Brazil and the Government of the State of Ceara, inimplementing the Maternal and Child Health Improvement Project in north-east Brazil 1996�2001. This project focused on ‘humanization of childbirth’, with training based intervention activities. Behavioral changes among health professionals who received the project’s participatory type of training were described using rapid anthropologicalassessment procedure RAP.
Results. Changes from ‘a culture of dehumanization of childbirth’ to ‘childbirth as a transformative experience’ were observed. �
2001 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. All
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Keywords: Childbirth; Humanization; Behavioral change; Rapid anthropological assessment