The Journal of medical humanities
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"Risky Business" considers hospital childbirth and the production of the concept of risk in obstetrics. Risk is a defining concept of medicalized childbirth. ⋯ 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."