Life stories: traditional birth attendants and homebirth

Abstract

The objective of this issue is to show the possibility of using Oral Life Story as a methodological framework to collect data in a qualitative research, with the try to  understand the traditional birth attendant experiences while caring for the women during home delivery in a brazilian rural northeastern community.  The results reveal that the life story of those women takes part of an ancient knowledge which during the time offers significant contribution for the construction of a new glimpse in the search for the humanization of care health relationship. Facing the diversity of the cultural universe that involves this knowledge, considered as a solidarity practice, a God´s gift, knowing and respecting is a fundamental condition for a real approach between popular and scientific knowledge.