AS VARIÁVEIS AMBIENTAIS RELACIONADAS AOS COMPORTAMENTOS DE PARENTALIDADE DOS SUJEITOS CISGÊNEROS E HETEROSSEXUAIS NA VIVÊNCIA DO PUERPÉRIO

Abstract

The postpartum period is marked by hormonal and social changes, where the social context plays a role in the construction of parenthood, frequently perpetuating gender inequality. This article analyzes environmental variables that contribute to the behaviors of cisgender and heterosexual individuals during this period. Through a narrative literature review from the perspective of Behavior Analysis (BA), it becomes evident that the idealization of motherhood and compulsory motherhood generate demands, eliciting responses of sadness, fear, anxiety, and ontological behaviors related to childcare and home care. Socioeconomic and racial factors also influence the health of postpartum women. The results indicate that the unequal division of care work is maintained by a culture selected by metacontingency, whose cultural consequence is the maintenance of the unequal system between genders. On a social scale, the accumulation of maternal overload constitutes a macrocontingency, in which the aggregate product is the high rate of illness among postpartum women. In conclusion, behavioral analysis allows us to understand how such practices are maintained, highlighting the need for progress in gender equality and to promote a repertoire of parenting, reversing the ceremonial metacontingency that contributes to the maintenance of inequalities in the postpartum period.