After 12 years of operation, the Natural Birth Center (CPN) at Mansão do Caminho, in Salvador, announced that it will no longer carry out births from September 20th. The reason? The resources transferred by the Health Department of the State of Bahia (Sesab) and the funds obtained through donations are not enough to cover the expenses of the health unit, which recorded a financial deficit of R$3.7 million in 2022, and expects a debt of R$4.05 million this year.
The entity founded by the medium Divaldo Franco and manager of the CPN stated that the decision was joint, while Sesab, in a statement, said it had offered several proposals for the maintenance of the site – all of which had been rejected by the philanthropic institution.
According to the CEO of Mansão do Caminho Mário Sérgio Almeida, the entity signed a contract with Sesab in 2013, which determined the transfer of R$ 100 thousand – a monthly and fixed amount, which was not changed over the years. years – by the secretariat for the maintenance of the CPN.
In return, the center would have to carry out 70 births per month (840 per year), a number that has not been reached for more than a decade. The year in which it recorded the highest number of births was 2016, when it recorded 795 births.
The construction of new hospitals and new birth centers in the city, such as the Albert Sabin Maternity Hospital, eight kilometers from the CPN, was one of the factors that reduced the number of births in the center of Mansão do Caminho, as Almeida points out.
“We were making every effort possible to maintain the work carried out at the Birth Center. As the years passed, resources were reduced by inflation. What was R$100,000 in 2013 would have to be R$450,000 in 2023”, pointed out the entity’s CEO.
When asked about the amount transferred to the CPN, Sesab responded, through an official statement, that “the decision [de fechamento] of the philanthropic entity was unilateral, and the Health Department of the State of Bahia (Sesab) was notified, in which it maintains a contract in force until September 20, 2023, referring to outpatient and inpatient services at the unit, in the amount of R$ 2.1 million”, says an excerpt from the statement.
Mansão do Caminho, in turn, released a response to the statement issued by the state body, stating that five meetings were held and, together, the entity decided to accept Sesab’s alternative: transferring births from the CPN to the Albert Sabin Maternity, maintaining government incentives for prenatal care for low-risk pregnant women.
At the time, the board would have accepted the alternative, which was questioned after the announcement of the closure on the institution’s social networks on the same day of the agreement. When questioned, the advisor informed that “the CPN technical staff, in addition to participating in the meetings described above, also had a meeting with the board”.
Rafaela Araújo, 33 years old, is also an obstetric nurse at the house. The glow of someone who has worked for a year and seven months on what she always dreamed of is noticeable from afar, as is the feeling of anguish when talking about a possible goodbye. “This assistance model needs to be maintained, it is an example of safety”, guarantees the employee.
According to the nurses, in August last year, the institution had already decided to close the CPN.
Model praised by patients and professionals
Over the 12 years, the CPN, Rede Cegonha’s first normal birth center in the country, recorded 6,696 births, an average of 32 per month, and a zero maternal mortality rate.
According to Sesab, the five beds will be deactivated, but outpatient prenatal services, which involve medical consultations and laboratory and imaging tests, will be maintained.
Mário Sérgio Almeida informed that 57 of the 62 employees will be fired. “We could not continue the CPN without putting Mansão do Caminho at risk”, he pointed out.
The closure also causes sadness for those who have already given birth at CPNA. Professor Emily França, 29, for example, discovered the center four months before having her first and only daughter, through an aunt.
Before that, he carried out medical monitoring at the medical center in Cajazeiras, where he lives. The experience from the first day of the visit, in July, to the postpartum consultation, in November, was described as a “beautiful, blessed moment of extreme professionalism”. There, the educator carried out laboratory tests, participated in conversation circles with pregnant women and nutritional monitoring.
“I was treated like a true queen. At the time of my birth, when I didn’t believe I would make it, everyone was there, cheering me on and giving me strength,” she reported. Débora Albuquerque, in 2018, also opted for a humanized birth at Mansão do Caminho, who sees the model as the best example of female autonomy in these moments. She met the CPN in one of the pregnancy circles offered by the institution, and that was when she was enchanted. “The nurses, receptionists, doulas, everyone, actually, they welcome us very warmly and make us feel very comfortable,” she said.
Those who live in other cities also seek the services offered at the CPN. This is the case of Physical Education professional, Leila Santiago, 30, who left São Sebastião do Passé, in the Metropolitan Region, to have her two children in Salvador. “I was welcomed and had the right to give birth the way I wanted. I had this freedom because they listen to us.”
*With guidance from deputy reporting chief Monique Lôbo
