While the focus on emotions has been associated with the rise of psychosocial welfare and has promised a gateway to accommodate individually diversified needs of citizens in policies, the article shows that the role of emotions needs to be better understood. Highlighting emotions can serve both to empower and to patronize those who experience them. Referring to emotions can thus strengthen hierarchies and downplay individual requests to initiate a change. The analysis of professional discourses on birth care in Czechia shows the value of contextualising emotions. While midwifery discourses apply the emotional context of birth to support women in their specific birth choices, medical discourses use the emotional context to patronize them and to limit their requirements. As a result, policy demands are seen as illegitimate when coming from midwives, who want to see women’s choices more respected in care. We analyse this dynamic through intimacy. As a conceptual framework used in sociology of care, ‘intimacy’ ties individual emotional experiences to collective discourses on care, the body and related feelings. Viewing professional discourses on birth care through intimacy reveals the role of emotions in the collective recognition of the personal struggle for the right to give birth in conditions that respect bodily and emotional integrity, which informs how we think of the role of emotions in policies in general.

尽管人们对情感的关注与社会心理福利的兴起相关联，并有望为适应公民在政策中的个人多样化需求提供一个途径，但该文章表明，情感的作用需要得到更好的理解。突出情绪既可以增强能力，也可以光顾经历者。因此，提及情感可以增强层次结构，并且轻视个人发起更改的请求。对捷克语中有关生育保健的专业论述的分析表明，情境化情感的价值。助产士话语运用出生时的情感背景来支持妇女的特定出生选择，而医学话语则利用情感中的背景来光顾她们并限制她们的要求。结果，来自助产士的政策要求被认为是非法的，希望看到妇女的选择在护理中得到更多尊重的人。我们通过亲密关系来分析这种动态。作为护理社会学中使用的概念框架，“亲密关系”将个人的情感经历与关于护理，身体和相关感受的集体话语联系起来。通过亲密关系查看有关生育保健的专业论述，揭示了情感在集体尊重人身享有分娩权的斗争中的作用，尊重人身和情感完整，这说明了我们如何看待情感在总体政策中的作用。