Paper short abstract:

This paper explores notions of risk and uncertainty in the context of childbirth in a First Nations community in Canada. Focusing on one case study, the paper reveals how what is defined as ‘acceptable’ risk differs greatly amongst the various actors, and how the bodies of the First Nations mother and midwife becomes sites in which these contestations over risk, responsibility, knowledge and safety occur.

Paper long abstract:

The risks and uncertainty associated with childbirth and how to best mitigate these are widely debated in both medical and public discourses of place of birth in Canada. In First Nation communities, these debates extend themselves into the role of the state and state policy as jurisdictional managers and decision makers of birth place for women and their families. One community in Manitoba, Canada is in the process of returning birth to their community through the employment of an Aboriginal midwife. By looking at one particular case study of a woman who attempted to have her baby in the community with the midwife and was denied this by state officials, this paper will focus on how uncertainty and risk are conceived in this context by the various actors involved in this negotiation, including the mother, the midwife, the medical staff including doctors and nurses, and the various state officials involved in the process. This case study contributes to the debate of not only the medicalisation of pregnancy in the context of a mother's choice, but also brings into focus the role of a mother's anxiety about place of birth and how this fits into a wider debate about the role cultural safety places in the current model of maternal health. These debates reveal that what is defined as 'acceptable' risk differs greatly amongst the various actors, and how the bodies of the First Nations mother and midwife becomes sites in which these contestations over risk, responsibility, knowledge and safety occur.