Bodies of risk: Constructing motherhood in a Mexican public hospital

► Inquires into the definitions and politicization of obstetrical risk for low-income women. ► Ethnographic study on the physician-patient relationship in a hospital in Mexico. ► Demonstrates how the motherhood of women is shaped by broader forces that define and delineate risk. ► Explores how clinicians' perceptions of their patients' social lives shape their interactions and decisions about their health.