Risk, uncertainty, and agency: culture and safe motherhood in Morocco

This article critically examines the notion that Moroccan women's infrequent use of health facilities during pregnancy and birth results from their lack of awareness of the risks of childbirth. It argues that while ethnographic data appear at first to lend support to this hypothesis, a closer examination of the customs surrounding birth shows that ideas about risk are found in local constructions of childbirth. The choices women make regarding birth and the flexibility that characterizes their decisions reflect the uncertain circumstances of labor and problems in the accessibility and quality of health services. Differences in the notions of risk that women hold and express are a function, not of an inability to conceive of risks, but rather of the real alternatives they have for controlling these risks.