Possibilities and limits of Prenatal Care for Men in a city in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Men’s Prenatal Care is a strategy to expand and promote the health of these people. We evaluated how the Family Health teams (eSF) conduct this artifice as a care strategy for the male population in Recife-PE, Brazil. This evaluative, cross-sectional, qualitative study involved nurses, doctors, dentists, nursing technicians, and community health workers. We applied a semi-structured questionnaire, followed by six focus groups with the eSF with the largest number of respondents in the first stage to deepen the development of the strategy. The thematic content analysis proposed by Bardin was performed. The evaluation matrix developed identified the main strengths and difficulties in the strategy’s structure, work process, and results. We observed that, while accepted as an excellent strategy, we identified a resistance that permeates from structural to cultural issues, hindering the proposal to expand access to actions and services to promote men’s health, preserving the biomedical model. Care refers to the unfolding of care already provided to pregnant women but faces limiting obstacles for its sustainability.