Assistência de enfermagem no puerpério: um olhar ampliado para a mulher, recém-nascido e a família

Abstract

The puerperium is characterized as period of changes and of physical and emotional adaptations intensively experienced by women. Despite the existing public policies, it has been verified that the assistance received by women during the puerperium is limited, often directed at physiological aspects. This study aims to identify, by means of a literature review, the contribution of nursing care to women, newborns and families during the puerperium. For this purpose, the databases of Biblioteca Virtual da Saúde were researched in the period comprised between 2002 and 2012. The following descriptors were used: puerperium; nursing care; puerperal women. Papers indexed on the LILACS, BNDENF and SCIELO databases constituted the research sources of this study. 12 publications were tabled throughout the analysis period and the three following thematic nucleuses were created: rooming-in nursing care; in-home nursing care; nursing care in health units. The assistance to puerperal women are a critical factor in the health system, although public policies have emphasized the importance of such kind of care since the 1980s. This reality highlights the necessity of discussing and making effective efforts to accomplish the humanization of care, as a step towards the integrality of the assistance to puerperal women. The nurse, as a member of the multidisciplinary team, plays a fundamental role in the creation of an affective bond among the puerperal woman, her newborn baby and her family, affording an assistance that begins with the pregnancy, and endures through the delivery and the post-delivery period.