[Family planning and tubal ligation: analysis of the work of a team of health providers].
This article presents partial results from a study aimed at recognizing the work of members of a public health team who regularly perform tubal ligations. Empirical data were obtained through interviews and observation of routine activities by nine team members. The principal analytical categories were health work concepts. The team was basically characterized as hierarchical, but the specific decision on surgical sterilization tended to become more horizontal, with a tendency towards a multidisciplinary approach. This situation tends to involve the ethical dimension, with a shift from scientific and biomedical knowledge to the social sciences and humanities. On the other hand, and in a contradictory way, in the actual decision to perform surgical sterilization, technical criteria are supported by biomedical knowledge, and comprehensive knowledge is relegated to a secondary role.