Programmimg Reproduction? Maternal Health Services

Abstract

In the absence of a basic questioning of women's status and role in society, birth control, abortions-and even maternal health care end up merely replacing an old set of traditions with new ones. Do maternal and child health services as they exist today have the potential to emancipate a woman or to further bind to her traditional roles, albeit in subtler ways? This article contends that the entire primary health programme reflects social attitudes towards women that view them primarily as mothers or potential mothers.