Introduction

This chapter describes the word 'toxic' and discusses its relationship with what Ulrich Beck names the 'risk society' and in turn how these are linked to the 'usual view' of birth and their maternity services. The notion of a toxic culture comes in the first instance from the decades-old environmental movement, which has consistently identified the growing avalanche of toxic conditions destroying the lived fabric of world. Ulrich Beck is trenchant about the outsize might. The 'usual view' of the science and technology complex is that it is progress pure and simple which is always to be welcomed with its 'excessive potential for action' bringing expanded economic growth 'within a dominant market-centred economy'. Beck identifies 'another darker dimension' to this complex because of the unforeseen risks which are produced. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.