This article shows how the public health system finds a means health regulation in horizontal relations among poor women in the city of Recife, Pernambuco State, in the Northeast of Brazil. Community Health Workers (ACS, for its Portuguese initials) monitor the health of poor families, especially mother-child relations, usually within female support networks. ACSs act as a sort of "motherhood police," aiming at results such as the reduction of infant mortality. ACSs are also working-class women, performing their duties in the same neighborhood where they live, and are involved in the same child care networks. Their role is constructed as a "friendly police" whose control is based on horizontal relationships among poor women. This also facilitates a reverse phenomenon, as ACSs become the object of monitoring by neighbors.
Public Health; Brazil; health workers; maternity; regulation