A mother who had her daughter’s head cut off after giving birth at the Darcy Vargas Maternity Hospital in Joinville said she was asked “how did she let” this happen to her daughter upon arrival at the ward. According to her, the question came from a nurse.

Baby was decapitated during childbirth in Joinville – Photo: Divulgation/Nappy/ND

For the mother, the fact that she was a black woman, poor and living with HIV contributed to her not being treated properly in the ward.

“They were disgusted with my color, my skin. They are not people. They treated me like they were saying, ‘This one doesn’t matter,'” she says.

According to the report, she always felt neglected because she was a black woman living with HIV.

The mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2017, but has since been taking antiretroviral drugs. Now, according to her, her viral load is undetectable. In practice, this means that, thanks to regular treatment, she is no longer a carrier of the HIV virus.

At this point it is important to remember that AIDS is a disease and HIV is a virus. Therefore, all people who receive the right treatment are living with HIV and do not get AIDS. This concept is even being clarified by Unaids (the UN NGO dealing with this issue) and the WHO (World Health Organization).

Researcher explains

According to UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) Professor Francis Solange Vieira Turiño, MD in Child and Adolescent Health and Member of the Equity and Diversity Working Group of the Brazilian Society for Quality in Care and Patient Safety, I need to talk more about the topic.

“When we think about racism and how it originated in Brazilian society, we first need to justify the myth of racial democracy, since this concept has contributed to the denial of the existence of racism in Brazil for many years,” he says.

The doctor also explains that differences in health between racial groups can be found in a variety of areas: lower life expectancy in the black population; more violent deaths, especially among young people, with homicide and female homicide rates rising among blacks and falling among whites over the past 10 years; more deaths from maternal and child causes, childhood malnutrition and infectious parasitic diseases; and more deaths from HIV/AIDS.

The professor also explains that the likelihood of inadequate prenatal care, that is, failure to comply with the recommendations of the Department of Health for a minimum number of consultations, additional tests and adequate guidance for pregnant women, is higher among the black population.

What does the SES say?

In a note, the SES/SC (Minister of Health of Santa Catarina) states that it cannot take a position on accepted medical procedures.

Check out the full note:

Maternidade Darcy Vargas reports that the incident is being investigated by the unit’s risk management department and the case is also being investigated by the police and will follow the procedures inherent in the situation. The Santa Catarina State Department of Health (SES/SC), following the guidance of the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM), does not report health status or comment on information about patients treated, hospitalized, or deceased in the health care network. state.

Prejudice against people living with HIV

When HIV was discovered, it was one of the biggest fears in the world. In the 1980s, for example, misinformation about the disease culminated as it was thought to affect more gay men.

However, it is known that anyone who does not use a condom can contract the disease today, but prejudice still persists, according to the Ministry of Health.

Taurinho explains that the Ministry of Health sees stigma and discrimination as everyday problems for people infected and affected by HIV. The UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina) study also indicates that six out of 10 people living with HIV say they have experienced some form of discrimination at least once in their lives.

The term “intersectionality” allows us to better understand the inequalities and duplication of oppression and discrimination that exist in society so that we can confront them and recognize that some types of oppression are more painful.

Many women or groups, just because they belong to these vulnerable “categories”, are subjected to a range of discrimination, prejudice and harassment, such as class, HIV, disability, gender, generation, homelessness, indigenous race/ethnicity. quilombola) and sexual orientation.

Obstetric violence is more common in black women – Photo: Divulgation/Nappy/ND

After all, are the professionals ready?

Brazil has had the PNSIPN (National Comprehensive Black Health Policy) since 2009, which is intended to be a tool to promote health equity in the Brazilian population. In addition, the guidelines for undergraduate health courses reiterate the importance of studying ethnic and racial issues and the history of Afro-Brazilian and indigenous cultures in professional training.

“These elements in dialogue with the National Comprehensive Black Care Policy and other policies to promote health equity should be addressed in courses, but we know this is not yet a reality. And that is why we still need to move forward in the preparation of medical professionals capable of promoting fair and anti-racist health care, guaranteeing humanistic, critical, reflective and ethical training, ”says the professor.

For her, this does not relieve pain, does not stop violence, and does not fundamentally change the centuries-old culture, but our future lies in the education of medical workers.

Obstetric violence linked to skin color

In April, the Special Commission on Obstetric Violence and Maternal Mortality discussed the issue with representatives from across the country, including Santa Catarina Health Minister Carmen Zanotto.

“Black women die more often than white women, even though they have the same level of education and access to prenatal care. It has been proven that we as medical professionals spend less time on prenatal care for black women than for white women,” he said at the time.

The case of the mother described in this article, a black woman, brings together many black women affected by obstetric violence in Brazil. A study published in the National Library of Medicine, for example, links racism to health care provided to black women in the country.

“In Brazil, black women are disproportionately denied access to timely care and remain vulnerable to death from preventable obstetric causes. However, they have not been at the center of recent initiatives to improve maternal health.

To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed the implementation of Rede Cegonha in the state of Bahia between 2012 and 2017.

Read the study by clicking here.