This work analyses the relationship between the woman who is living the process of delivering and the obstetric nurse, who is also a woman and an institutional agent. It discusses how the submission experiences are lived by this woman as a subject of an anatomic and physiologic process and also how power and domination of the institution, represented by the nurse, on that woman is expressed. It exposes the woman's submission to the institution and her expectancies about the delivery moment, the fear of pain and bad treatment. The subtle and polite power exerted by nurse on this woman, showing that she is also a woman who is taking care of another woman, expressing her subjectivity and rational pattern of modern science. The approach was qualitative. Data have been obtained by participant observation and not completely structured interviews, and have been analysed under the dialectical perspective.
Obstetric Nursing; Nurse-patient Relationship; Nursing Care at Birth