Overview

Editors:

Victor Minichiello
University of New England, NSW, Australia

David Plummer
University of the West Indies, Trinidad

The field of childbirth is increasingly contentious in Australia with 'medicalised birth' escalating the demand on stretched medical resources, and media reports of staff shortages and conflicts over philosophy of management, service delivery and roles of professional care providers. 

Many governmental enquiries, subsequent recommendations and policy proposals have sought to decrease technological intervention in the physiological processes of conception, pregnancy and childbirth (e.g., Parliament of Australia, Senate, 1999; New South Wales Health, 2000; Victoria, 2004), but 'medicalised birth' still dominates the mainstream health system and can be argued that it is actively sought by an increasing population of women and families.

Childbirth, Politics & the Culture of Risk extends the strong social science critique of the 'medicalisation' of birth – which has been further impacted by the growth of modern consumerism. It critically examines the pervasive cultural construction of reproduction as a medical event laden with risk which is in need of technological management. It juxtaposes policy and professional debates about 'risk management' with social theoretical analyses following Ulrich Beck's Risk Society (1992) constructs.

Designed as a course reader for society and risk, maternity and midwifery and nursing and culture courses, this special issue of Health Sociology Review (volume 15/4 – October 2006) addresses the 'politics of maternity care' and the 'culture of fear' by drawing on contemporary social theory and research in order to clarify practical and policy issues – an imperative read given the increasing trend towards the medicalisation of childbirth.

Table of Contents

Revisiting Sexualities and Health

Editorial: Sexuality and Health: Contributions from Sociological Insights
Victor Minichiello, David Plummer

Circumcision and the Socially Imagined Sexual Body
Juliet Richters

Correlates of Sexual Assault in a Sample of Male African American Crack Cocaine Users
Beth R Crisp, Mark Williams, Michael W Ross, Sandra Timpson

The Positioning of Bisexuals and 'Men Who have Sex with Men' in Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health Research, 1990-2004
Murray Couch, Marian Pitts

Rights, Responsibilities and Citizenship in Heterosexual Women's Talk about Sex: Promoting women's sexual health and safety
Joanne Bryant

Sibling Incest Within Violent Families: Children under 12 years seeking nurture
Sharon Brennan

AIDS is a Tear in the Social Fabric of Papua New Guinea: HIV and its impact, 2005-2025
Heather Worth, Klara Henderson

Psychosocial Influences on Adolescent Sexuality and Identity in Rural Kenya
Anne Kamau, Reinhard Bornemann, Ulrich Laaser

Book Reviews

Sexual Health: An Australian Perspective
Meredith Temple-Smith and Sandra Gifford (eds)
Reviewed by Lorraine Yap