The recent reproductive and child health (RCH) combi

In the last decade, several international and national movements have focused their attention, on the long neglected areas of women's reproductive health.

The number of maternal deaths that take place every day in India exceeds the total number of such deaths that occurs in all developed countries in a month.

Traditional care consists of numerous practices which mean to bring her back to 'rosy health and vigor' and to enable her to feed her child with sufficient nutritious milk. As the woman's health is all the more vulnerable after child-birth, practices are adopted to sustain her health.

A major challenge under the new RCH approach is operationalising the paradigm shift to a comprehensive and integrated program into reality.

The success of a good planning strategy for the overall development of any society (population) depends upon two main factors.

Women use images of earthen pots breaking, flowers or fruits falling, to symbolize the loss of pregnancy. kachha ghada phoota (UP Rajasthan), phool jhade ( Madhya Pradesh), kaacho padi gayo (Rajasthan), garbha-alasyam (Kerala) are some of the terms used to describe miscarriages.

In most of the rural areas in India, bringing humanity to the light of day is collectively and deftly managed by the dai along with other experienced women and the laboring woman herself.

This idea underlies traditional care during pregnancy. It may be true that in pregnancy a woman has more access to food and other things. But, communities have ways to oversee foetal growth and development. They subject women to restrictions and recommendations regarding diet and activities.

The knowledge road to health has many pitfalls -and women in less developed countries and particularly those who are poor, illiterate and unemployed, face crucial tradeoffs when they attempt to fulfil their biological, social and other needs.