Care for women with high-risk pregnancies in primary care services in the city of São Paulo, Brazil: The healthcare team's perspective

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate care for women with high-risk pregnancies from the healthcare team's perspective in primary healthcare (PHC) services in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. This is an evaluative study with a qualitative approach that used the open interview technique for data collection from PHC personnel. The data were explored through thematic categories built from the content emerging spontaneously from the interviews, discussed according to Health Work Process Theory. The results evidenced three domains: a normal work routine, organized from the perspective of exclusively biological practices and in which the management model sometimes fails to allow compliance with the recommended practices; a referral and counter-referral system, which sometimes allows more timely interventions, more unique to the pregnant women's needs, but still disconnected from the referral services; and shared responsibility of the PHC team for the pregnant woman, characterized by flexibilization of the work routine that extends beyond application of clinical protocols, encouraging the building of a bond and favoring qualification of care. The study revealed the need for flexibilization of use of patient care protocols in the work process, which can promote the shared responsibility of PHC teams for care, to adjust it to each pregnant woman's unique needs, beyond the limits of services' organization based on the logic of exclusively biological practices.