In contemporary Western society, the concept of risk is mostly linked related to negative or undesirable outcomes and used to explain unusual or abnormal events that have harmful consequences. Working in a poststructuralist framework, in this article we examine how risk shapes interactions between midwives and pregnant women in the context of public hospitals in Australia. We draw on data from an observational study of clinical encounters in three Australian hospitals between October 2014 and July 2015. The research teams recorded 83 health encounters and in this paper we draw on data from the recordings of 10 clinical consultations between 8 midwives and 10 pregnant women at various stages of gestation. We used these data to explore how a discourse of risk was mobilised through rhetorical strategies and practices of ‘hunting’ for the abnormal and attempts to control the body. Our findings demonstrate how a discourse of pregnancy and birth as risky operates within public hospital midwifery consultations. We found that in the midwifery consultations we recorded, pregnancy was constructed as a period of vulnerability and unpredictability. It was normalised through discursive practices of hunting for the abnormal and rhetorical strategies of attempting to control the body. Within this discourse, midwives occupied conflicting positions. They asserted that women, with the right support, were capable of spontaneous and intervention-free (pregnancy and) birth. Yet, they acted to enable medical professionals to assess a woman’s ability to give birth (un)assisted, or the potential for an adverse event. The women, while positioned as passive within the public health system, were positioned as active in surveilling themselves and responsible for taking steps to mitigate against adverse events.

在当代西方社会中，风险的概念大多与负面或不良后果相关，并用于解释具有有害后果的异常或异常事件。在本文的后结构主义框架中，我们考察了在澳大利亚的公立医院中，风险如何影响助产士和孕妇之间的互动。我们从2014年10月至2015年7月在澳大利亚三家医院进行的临床遭遇观察研究中获得数据。研究团队记录了83次健康遭遇，在本文中，我们从8名助产士与10名孕妇之间的10次临床咨询记录中获得了数据妇女处于妊娠的各个阶段。我们使用这些数据来探索如何通过修辞策略和“寻找”异常并试图控制身体的方法来动员风险话语。我们的研究结果表明，在公立医院的助产士咨询中，如何将妊娠和分娩作为危险的话语进行操作。我们发现，在我们记录的助产士咨询中，怀孕被视为脆弱和不可预测的时期。它通过漫无目的地寻找试图控制身体的反常和修辞策略来规范化。在这个论述中，助产士占据了冲突的位置。他们断言，在适当的支持下，妇女能够自发且无干预（怀孕和分娩）。然而，他们采取行动使医疗专业人员能够评估妇女的分娩能力（无助产）或发生不良事件的可能性。妇女在公共卫生系统中处于被动状态，但在监视自己方面处于主动状态，并负责采取措施减轻不良事件的影响。