Thesis (M.S.) in Human Development--University of Maine, 2004. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-55).

Dissertation--Halle.

L’accouchement prématuré est l’un des problèmes majeurs en obstétrique. Par suite, il a été un sujet d'intérêt pour de nombreux chercheurs. Parmi les nombreuses méthodes utilisées pour enregistrer la contractilité utérine, le plus utilisé est l'EHG abdominal, comme étant un outil facile à utiliser et non invasif. De nombreuses études ont indiqué que l'utilisation de ce signal pourrait être un outil très puissant pour surveiller la grossesse et pour détecter le travail. Il permet en effet d'accéder à l'utérus ainsi que la synchronisation de l'activité utérine, en utilisant des signaux multiples. Il a été démontré que l'analyse de connectivité des signaux EHG a donné des résultats prometteurs en application clinique, comme la classification des contractions de travail et de grossesse. Cependant, dans presque toutes les études antérieures, les matrices de corrélation EHG étaient souvent réduites en ne gardant que leur moyenne et les écarts-types, ce qui a peut aboutir à perdre des informations pertinentes en raison de ce moyennage, ce qui peut induire le taux de classification relativement faible jusqu'à présent. Pour caractériser précisément la matrice de corrélation et quantifier la connectivité associée, nous avons proposé dans cette thèse d'utiliser une technique de mesure de réseau basée sur la théorie des graphes. Selon cette approche, la matrice de corrélation obtenue peut être représentée sous forme de graphiques constitués d'un ensemble de nœuds (électrodes) interconnectés par des arêtes (valeurs de connectivité / corrélation entre électrodes). La nouvelle procédure de l'analyse des signaux EHG enregistrés pendant la grossesse et le travail se base sur la caractérisation de la corrélation entre les activités électriques utérines et sur sa quantification précise en utilisant l'approche de la théorie des graphes. Le pipeline de traitement inclut i) l'estimation des dépendances statistiques entre les différents signaux EHG enregistrés, ii) la quantification des matrices de connectivité obtenues à l'aide de l'analyse théorique des graphes et iii) l'utilisation clinique des mesures de réseau pour la surveillance de la grossesse ainsi que la classification entre les éclosions d'EHG de grossesse et de travail. Une comparaison avec les paramètres déjà existants utilisés pour la détection du travail et la détection d’accouchement prématuré sera également effectuée. Nous étudions également une nouvelle méthode pour étudier la connectivité source EHG, afin de surmonter le problème du calcul de la connectivité au niveau de la surface abdominale. Les résultats de cette thèse montrent que cette approche basée sur la théorie de graphe est un outil très prometteur pour quantifier la synchronisation utérine, lorsqu'elle est appliquée à l'abdomen, pour une meilleure surveillance de la grossesse. Nous espérons que cette approche soit utilisée pour le suivi de la grossesse et contribuerait ainsi à la prédiction précoce de l’accouchement prématuré. / Preterm birth remains a major problem in obstetrics. Therefore, it has been a topic of interest for many researchers. Among the many methods used to record the uterine contractility, the most used is the abdominal EHG, as being an easy to use and a non-invasive tool. Many studies have reported that the use of this signal could be a very powerful tool to monitor pregnancy and to detect labor. It indeed permits to access the uterine as well as the synchronization of the uterine activity, by using multiple signals. It has been shown that the connectivity analysis gave promising results when using EHG recordings in clinical application, such as the classification labor/pregnancy contractions. However, in almost all previous studies EHG correlation matrices were often reduced keeping only their mean and standard deviations thus relevant information may have been missed due to this averaging, which may induce the relatively low classification rate reported so far. To characterize precisely the correlation matrix and quantify the associated connectivity, we proposed in this thesis to use a network measure technique based on graph theory. According to this approach, the obtained correlation matrix can be represented as graphs consisting of a set of nodes (electrodes) interconnected by edges (connectivity/correlation values between electrodes). The new framework, to analyze the EHG signals recorded during pregnancy and labor, is based on the characterization of the correlation between the uterine electrical activities and on its precise quantification by using graph theory approach. The processing pipeline includes i) the estimation of the statistical dependencies between the different recorded EHG signals, ii) the quantification of the obtained connectivity matrices using graph theory-based analysis and iii) the clinical use of network measures for pregnancy monitoring as well as for the classification between pregnancy and labor EHG bursts. A comparison with the already existing parameters used in the state of the art for labor detection and preterm labor prediction will also be performed. We also investigate a new method to study the EHG source connectivity, to overcome the problem of computing the connectivity at the abdominal surface level. The results of this thesis showed that this network-based approach is a very promising tool to quantify uterine synchronization, when applied at the abdominal level, for a better pregnancy monitoring. We expect this approach to be further used for the monitoring of pregnancy and would thus help for the early prediction of preterm labor.

This study aims to analyze health practices that support obstetric violence as a legal possession right by the medical-scientific knowledge-power of bodies, sexual and reproductive processes of women during their pregnancies and labor. This appropriation is a particular configuration in health care, in which the risk discourse embedded in this kind of knowledge-power that highlights biological factors, pathologizing and fragmented, making it the only way to manage the risk during pregnancy and childbirth, rather than expansion of autonomy, act producing docile bodies in the sense used by the philosopher Michel Foucault. I seek to relate relationships between risk concepts with medical and hospital discursive practices, marked by the logic of maximum production profits in the shortest time and built the scientific truth of value-legitimize the interventions on the bodies-of-women that acts reinforcing a dispossession of pregnancies and births. Expanding the locus of obstetric violence beyond the hospital, we identify their presence in some prenatal care practices in both the public or private health sector. It also emphasize gender concepts, body, human sexuality and reproduction, all common topics in our society , working in naturalization and perpetuation of obstetric violence as gender-based violence against women ;that are pregnant or have children. We also question a certain understanding of humanized birth and their individualizing, statist or marketing shots, which tend to take you to a land in which the role of women is narrowly. By endorsing labor humanisation, social movements and public policies give other senses about issues related to women's health, in which obstetric violence is of them; this notoriety, however, must be transformed into specific actions to be implemented to not only identify and criminalize those who practice obstetric violence, but also to incorporate workers, managers and users of health systems in order to exercise their protagonists to others, linking relations, accountability and sharing decisions about ways to gestate and give birth. The path of this research was born in intervention research as a methodology. in which the relationship between search object and the search engine are related by implication, that is, the ability to produce changes to each other. So, I bring experiences as a mother, activist of the Movement for Birth Humanization (MBH) woman medical health officer, medical school teacher, and the health system user; roles that mix, transform and dialogue to the practice of research involved, designing research in social, ethical and aesthetic commitment. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo a análise de práticas em saúde que sustentam a violência obstétrica como apropriação pelo saber-poder médico-científico dos corpos, dos processos reprodutivos e sexuais das mulheres durante suas gestações e partos. Tal apropriação assume especial configuração nos serviços de saúde, nos quais o discurso do risco incorporado por esse tipo de saber-poder adquire formas marcadamente centradas em fatores biológicos, patologizantes e fragmentários, configurando um modo singular de gestão dos riscos na gestação e parto, que ao invés de ampliação de autonomia, atuam produzindo corpos dóceis, no sentido utilizado pelo filósofo Michel Foucault. Busco ainda tecer relações entre conceitos de risco com práticas discursivas médico-hospitalares que, marcadas pela lógica da máxima produção de lucros no mínimo de tempo possível e embutidas do valor de verdade científica, legitimam-se nas intervenções sobre os corpos-das-mulheres-que-parem e atuam reforçando uma desapropriação das gestações e partos pelas mulheres. Ampliando o lócus da violência obstétrica para além do hospital, identificamos sua presença em algumas práticas de acompanhamento pré-natal, seja no setor público ou privado de saúde. Ressaltamos também conceitos de gênero, corpo, sexualidade e reprodução humana comuns em nossa sociedade que atuam na naturalização e perpetuação da violência obstétrica como violência de gênero contra mulheres que gestam e parem. Problematizamos ainda um certo entendimento de parto humanizado e suas capturas individualizantes, estatizantes ou mercadológicas, que tendem a leva-lo a um terreno no qual o protagonismo das mulheres ocorre de forma restrita. Ao tomar a bandeira da humanização do parto, movimentos sociais e políticas públicas conferem outros sentidos dando visibilidade a outras questões relativas à saúde das mulheres, sendo uma delas o problema da violência obstétrica; esta notoriedade, entretanto, precisa ser transformada em ações específicas a serem implementadas no sentido de não somente identificar e criminalizar quem pratica a violência obstétrica, como também de incorporar trabalhadores, gestores e usuárias dos sistemas de saúde de modo a exercerem seus protagonismos uns com os outros, apontando para relações de vínculo, responsabilização e partilha de decisões sobre os modos de gestar e parir. O percurso desta pesquisa fundou-se na pesquisa-intervenção, como metodologia na qual a relação entre objeto de pesquisa e pesquisador relacionam-se pela implicação, ou seja, pela capacidade de um produzir mudanças no outro. Assim, trago alguns relatos de experiências vividas como mãe, ativista do movimento pela humanização do parto (MPH), mulher, médica sanitarista, docente do curso médico, além de usuária do sistema de saúde; papéis que se misturam, se transformam e dialogam com a prática da pesquisa implicada, desenhando a pesquisa com compromisso social, ético e estético.