Regulating risk and the boundaries of state conduct: a relational perspective on home birth in Australia

Abstract

The concept of motivated reasoning and conflicting moral domains behind the state’s conduct towards pregnant women, as described by Minkoff and Marshall (2015), can also be observed in the apparent attitudes towards homebirth in Australia. In this commentary, we briefly outline the status of homebirth in Australia and provide some examples of motivated reasoning in the Australian context. Despite this, some commentators have refrained from risk-based judgments to instead emphasize the importance of communication with, and making ‘reasonable accommodation’ for, pregnant women; even in high-risk situations. We consider that a relational approach might work better than Minkoff and Marshall’s conclusion that pregnant women are best situated to decide on risk. Indeed, their paper hints to a relational approach at several points, but this is not explicitly taken up. We also claim that a relational approach provides a way to give rise to a principled compromise of conflicts in this contested space.