Abstract
In Chile, universal screening and treatment for postpartum depression has been implemented at a national level, however it remains under-detected and under-treated. To describe and analyze barriers to postpartum depression detection and treatment implied in maternal-infant health care production at general practice waiting rooms, an ethnographic study was carried out at six primary care clinics belonging to the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile. Discourses and practices on maternity enacted at waiting room, reveals a conflicting condition for postpartum women, implying a differential overburden with domestic work and care tasks, demanding constant mobilization between formal and informal health care sources. The grade of integration between remunerated work and women’s self-care is debated.