“Then you delivered my daughter”: critical discourse analysis of a letter to the obstetrician

Abstract

In this paper, which is part of a broader study on the discursive representationof pregnancy and childbirth, we present a critical discourse analysis of a‘letter to the obstetrician’. The choice of this theme was motivated by thequestion of hospitalization of childbirth in Brazil, country where the indexof caesarean surgeries registered in private hospitals is 82%, the highest inthe world. In addition, the choice of this kind of letter as analytical objectto this paper is due to the realization of an innovative discursive genre,related to the pro natural childbirth movement in Brazil. Employinganalytical categories as assessment, cohesion, modality, presuppositionand intensifi cation, we investigate styles in the text, considering thediscursive construction of identity and processes of identifi cation. Ouranalysis indicates high use of intensifi cation and denial, beyond therecurrent expression of feelings, judgments and assessments. Taking thedocument as a record of a situation, we interpret the doctor’s performanceevaluation as part of a wider criticism of the care model in Brazil, whichembodies aspects of hegemonic struggle discursively performed.