«Sociología del espacio». La distribución espacial de los paritorios como cultura material de los paradigmas obstétricos inmanentes y su repercusión en términos de humanización asistencial

From the perspective of the «sociology of space», this study will explore the connections that exist between ideological factors (paradigms of representation of childbirth), systems of clinical organization (cultures of childbirth) and architectural developments (spatial typologies of birthing rooms), and their repercussions in terms of humanising care. To this end, a twenty-four-month ethnographic investigation was carried out in six birthing rooms of the state health service in a region of southern Spain. The research technique was participant observation, accumulating a total of three hundred and twenty-four hours of analysis. The results show how architectural arrangements are closely linked to pre-existing obstetric paradigms and cultures, tending from a technocratic perspective, organically, toward a fragmentation of the healthcare space that dehumanises the process, and from holistic-humanistic worldviews, in terms of a continuum, toward a space-care reintegration that contributes to humanisation.