ABSTRACT
The modern definition of childbearing as a dangerous experience that must be medically controlled has at its heart the idea of risk. Many aspects of life are risky, but we make no attempt to prevent people from exercising their democratic right to expose themselves to such risks if they so choose. In the area of childbirth, the development of modern obstetric practice means that women are not allowed to determine for themselves the risk they take in having a baby. At the present time in the industrialized world, the risk of a woman herself dying in childbirth is about 1 in 10,000 (live births and stillbirths); deaths of babies around the time of birth are around 10 per 1000. Table 22 shows the risk of dying run by individuals engaged in a number of everyday activities, which is roughly equivalent to the risk of dying in childbirth for a woman in a developed country today (to find equivalents for the risk to the baby, multiply the figures in Table 22 by a factor of ten). One in 10,000 Risk of Death, from Different Causes https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table"> 75 cigarettes 5000 miles by car 25,000 miles by air 2-1/2 hours rock climbing 10 hours canoeing 33 hours being a man aged 60 years 100 days being a boy aged 12 years 100–200 weeks of typical factory work Source: Nicholson, 1986.
