The logic of care in sanitary strategies aimed at maternal child population

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic research where sanitary actions destined to maternal and child populations are analyzed in the frame of care studies. Objectives: a) Identify discourses and practices used by agents of official health care system for nutritional deficits treatments, b) Explore patient population perceptions regarding official medical attention system, c) Identify local health care practices. Methodology: qualitative, participant observation, deep interviews and documentation techniques in rural regions in Oran department, Salta, Argentina. Results: PHC practices are included under governability studies framework and sustained in nuclear family patterns. Mothers are active patients who elaborate strategies for their children health care. From biomedical knowledge and traditional health practices, mediations emerge between sanitary agents and their patients. Conclusions: health care idea is critical to reveal the inequality spider web in which PHC politics addressed population vulnerability is built. Patients are active subjects who search for therapeutic instances where their body sensations are record and their subjectivity is respected.