Práticas de cuidados domiciliares à criança menor de dois anos na ausência da mãe trabalhadora: implicações para saúde destas crianças

Abstract

In Brazil, 29% of the families lead by women survive with an income of one half of the national minimum salary. This Information reveals the unstable financiai condition in which these families are (IBGE, 1998). This research concentrates on the famiiy whose male parent is absent and where the woman works outside, so that children are taken care of by other people. This study aims at investigating the practices of care of the child under 2 years old during the absence of the mother working outside seeing the implications for the health condition of these children and, as a result, for that of the famiiy; identifying: the main jobs held by mothers; the main person responsible for taking care of children at the mother’s absence and the ways used to look after them and supplying guidelines to reorient the nurses' role at the Family Health Program conceming this context. We employed interviews and participatory observation to collect the data. Information was supplied by women leading their families and having children under 2 years old. To analyze and classify the data we used the systems' theory (Wright & Leahey, 1994 and Hall & Weaver apuei Boyd, 1990). The results show that the fight for survival is what most characterizes the way that these families structure themselves. The practices of care done vary according to the caretaker figure, the care quality, the famiiy size, the available support, financial conditions, the interaction between famiiy members and between them and other social systems. The processes developed in the micro and macrosocial environment contribute to facilitating or affecting health (Althoff, 2000).