The Risks of Childbirth in Historical Perspective: Some Preliminary Considerations

Although much has been written about the history of childbirth, the theme of childbirth risk has yet to be interrogated historically. While this may seem surprising, in view of the hegemonic role played by risk in the practices and discourses surrounding childbirth today, it is in fact merely symptomatic of a general reluctance of historians to take up the theme of risk, in contrast with social scientists, who have been wrestling with that theme since the mid-1980s. This paper sets some bearings for the historical study of childbirth risk, distinguishing between the reconstruction of (a) historical risks and (b) the “conceptual prehistory of risk”, that is, the ensemble of approaches and ideas through which uncertainty was handled before the concept of risk arrived. It suggests that in view of the inherently problematic nature of that concept, the past may have more to teach the present than we might suppose.