Risky Business: Framing Childbirth in Hospital Settings

Author: Hausman, Bernice

Source: Journal of Medical Humanities, Volume 26, Number 1, April 2005 , pp. 23-38(16)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

“Risky Business” considers hospital childbirth and the production of the concept of risk in obstetrics. Risk is a defining concept of medicalized childbirth. Approaching obstetrical risk with a goal of challenging its hold on practices demonstrates how risk itself is produced and maintained in particular institutional contexts. The goal here is to imagine new ways of understanding and assessing obstetrical risk, as part of an overall strategy of challenging technocratic approaches to childbirth and mothering. Surveying feminist approaches to childbirth, the essay discusses how the mother’s health profile affects both medical education and the construction of childbirth as “risky business.”

Keywords: feminist; childbirth; risk; fetus; technology; mothers

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10912-005-1050-3

Affiliations: 1: English Department, 0112, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, Email: bhausman@vt.edu

Publication date: 2005-04-01