Changes, institutional logics and emergence of new actors: the renaturation of maternity in Brazil

Abstract The worldwide leadership of Brazil regarding the proportion of births carried out by cesarean section has triggered governmental initiatives and responses by women’s groups working to reverse this situation, evidencing initiatives for the renaturation of maternity. In this context, key actors for the promulgation of new practices regarding childbirth and child rearing are highlighted. Based on this, we aim to investigate the emergence of new actors involved in the field of maternity, during processes of change in institutional logics, herein named interventionist logic and natural logic of motherhood. Based on a documentary research in the field of health and a case study in a support group for pregnant women and mothers in the city of Maringa (PR), it was demonstrated that perceived inconsistencies between contradictory logics provided opportunity for the emergence of new actors who acted as legitimators of the changes, providing support for other logics and enabling their recursive expansion in the field.