Rural Pregnancies, City Childbirths: Deterritorializing Scenarios in the Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Maternity Processes in Chubut, Argentina.

Abstract

The province of Chubut adheres to the Perinatal Care Regionalization, which implies a series of problems related to the organization of the healthcare system in rural spaces. This makes sense when we take into account that Chubut is Argentina’s third largest province, but one of the less densely populated at the same time. In this state of affairs, long distances and underdeveloped road and communication infrastructure are obstacles to guaranteeing transportation and mobility dynamics for both pregnant people and their families. In this article, we propose a first approach to the problems that arise from the pregnancy, childbirth and maternity experience, based on a cartographic research approach, supported by interviews and social cartography workshops carried out with health personnel, mothers and families from rural localities. This is how clues to address several lines of flight arise, lines of flight that escape from medical-bureaucratic regulations, and whose approach arises from local community strategies that seek to ensure optimal conditions for rural perinatal journeys, even if their medical aspects are addressed mostly in cities. In this scenario, future reforms to the current organization of the perinatal care regionalization process are hinted at by the deterritorialization processes advanced by the perinatal care regionalization initiative; by the generous, local community strategies; by the domestic organization; and by the construction of generous, transportation networks or the elective changes of reference hospitals and birth cities, all of which go hand in hand with the Respectful Maternity Care Law, which is put forward as an initial approach in this study.