This study aimed to understand the significance of spirituality to Portuguese women who had a water birth. In-depth interviews, using a semi-structured questionnaire, were conducted with 24 women who experienced water birth at the hospital or home. Results were analyzed from a narrative interpretation perspective. Three spirituality-related categories emerged: (1) Beliefs and connections with the body; (2) Spirituality: integration of being a woman and transformation during birth; and (3) Spirituality as wisdom, intuition, or the sixth sense. Spirituality was perceived in women's faith and beliefs in a superior being that helped them manage the unpredictability and uncontrollability of giving birth. KeywordsSpirituality • Water birth • Humanized birth • Life-changing events • Birth experiences

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The aim of this work is to analyse the impact of the course for social educator formation, also known as "Ações Multiplicadoras; o museu e a inclusão sociocultural", one of the initiatives of the São Paulo State Pinacotheca. The investigation intents to understand how educational initiatives by the Pinacotheca may be an aid to the work of social educators. What are the gains and the limits of their intervention? Do these initiatives help in including and expanding the public under social vulnerability? What are the perceptions of the social educator? When trying to promote an encounter between the public under social vulnerability and the works of art, one believes that the inequality of the access to cultural assets and services is reduced. However, some authors criticise this point of view, by stating that it is not possible to create deep and lasting links. The present research used mainly a qualitative approach. In order to collect the data, I selected the participants of the course in the years 2012 and 2013. In this occasion, I engaged in a participative observation and applied forms. I also interviewed the coordinator of the Sociocultural Inclusion Program. Through participative observation, I verified that the meaning of the course is resignified according to the reality and the creative efforts of the social educator, who has in this way his or her professional activity enlarged. It became evident too that its goal is to take to the public the possibilities of the museum and to grant access to the instruments and resources that can be used in socioeducational projects. Yet, as regards the ambition of the institution to form new publics, it is not possible to assert either that the cooperation is consolidated or that the public has been substantially modified, once that the public does not have the capacity to create lasting habits.