Contraceptive medicalisation, fear of infertility and teenage pregnancy in Brazil.

In Brazil, as in many other countries, teenage pregnancy is widely recognised as a public health problem. Buttressed by a public health science of the economics of teenage pregnancy that emphasises the postponement of parenthood as key to poverty reduction, young people's lack of appreciation for medical knowledge of contraceptives is most often credited for failed attempts to reduce teenage pregnancy. Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study conducted in Pelotas, Brazil, with young people over the course of 10 years, our study found that young women who became teenage parents did not lack medical knowledge but were, rather, highly medicalised. Not only were they intensely concerned with the ill-effects of oral contraceptives on possible future fertility, they also engaged in intricate routines of contraceptive-use as a way of testing and safeguarding their fecundity. Our analysis attends to the way these practices are shaped by the problematisation of the economics of teenage pregnancy, as well as by the gendering of cultural norms relating to the transition to adulthood. We theorise the results by considering how contraceptive medicalisation enabled some women to engage with the authority of normative society, while developing a potent off-stage critique of this authority and of what they considered to be discriminatory messages imbedded in scientific discourses on teenage pregnancy

The politicizing clinic: insights on ‘the social’ for mental health policy and practice

PurposeIn this paper, we explore how Brazilian socially sensitive therapy can respond to care-users’ desire to change the social and political forces shaping their lives. We use this case to demonstrate the limits of the “social determinants of health” agenda which, when operationalized, tends to leave questions of lasting structural change aside.MethodsWe report on mixed methods ethnographic and epidemiological results from the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study, a prospective study of 5914 children. Ethnographic analysis explored the cyclical relationship between schooling, mental health care, conceptualizations of mental distress, social and political engagement, and experiences with diverse forms of discrimination. Epidemiological bivariate and multivariate analyses examined differences in socio-political participation and the reporting of discrimination at different time-points for participants who used therapy with those who did not. Effect modification analysis tested the hypothesis that the socially empowering effects of therapy were greater for marginalized and minoritized youth.ResultsMost young people living in situations of precarity experienced therapy, particularly when based in schools, to be a blame-inducing process. A more fulfilling and impactful therapeutic experience took shape when young people were able to shift the focus away from symptom reduction and behavioral management toward narrative life analyses, social debate, and political agency. Use of socially sensitive therapy was statistically associated with increased political participation and reporting of discrimination after controlling for confounders. The empowering effects of therapy were greater for those with less formal education and family income, but not for young people who identified as black, brown, or non-white.ConclusionThe findings underscore the importance of considering agency, sociality, and politics when theorizing “the social” in clinical practice, and health and social policy

Infant sleep hygiene counseling (sleep trial): protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Sleep problems in childhood have been found to be associated with memory and learning impairments, irritability, difficulties in mood modulation, attention and behavioral problems, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Short sleep duration has been found to be associated with overweight and obesity in childhood. This paper describes the protocol of a behavioral intervention planned to promote healthier sleep in infants. Methods The study is a 1:1 parallel group single-blinded randomized controlled trial enrolling a total of 552 infants at 3 months of age. The main eligibility criterion is maternal report of the infant’s sleep lasting on average less than 15 h per 24 h (daytime and nighttime sleep). Following block randomization, trained fieldworkers conduct home visits of the intervention group mothers and provide standardized advice on general practices that promote infant’s self-regulated sleep. A booklet with the intervention content to aid the mother in implementing the intervention was developed and is given to the mothers in the intervention arm. In the two days following the home visit the intervention mothers receive daily telephone calls for intervention reinforcement and at day 3 the fieldworkers conduct a reinforcement visit to support mothers’ compliance with the intervention. The main outcome assessed is the between group difference in average nighttime self-regulated sleep duration (the maximum amount of time the child stays asleep or awake without awakening the parents), at ages 6, 12 and 24 months, evaluated by means of actigraphy, activity diary records and questionnaires. The secondary outcomes are conditional linear growth between age 3–12 and 12–24 months and neurocognitive development at ages 12 and 24 months. Discussion The negative impact of inadequate and insufficient sleep on children’s physical and mental health are unquestionable, as well as its impact on cognitive function, academic performance and behavior, all of these being factors to which children in low- and middle-income countries are at higher risk. Behavioral interventions targeting mothers and young children that can be delivered inexpensively and not requiring specialized training can help prevent future issues by reducing the risk to which these children are exposed. Trial registration ClinicalTrial.gov NCT02788630 registered on 14 June 2016 (retrospectively registered)