De la gestion technique du risque à celle du travail : l'accouchement en hôpital public

Since the 1998 perinatal reform, pregnancies and births have to be handled as a function of the estimated level of risk for the pregnant woman and fetus. Through a survey based on observations of, and interviews with, personnel in obstetrics, we see how managing risks and using techniques arise in interaction out of the tension between two forms of rationalization, the one formal, the other material. Four techniques are examined for assisting childbirth: the induction of labor, “directed work”, peridural analgesia and preventive Caesarian sections.