The two issues in the field of fertility that have received widest publicity in the recent times in India are the rapidly growing number of clinics that are performing amniocentesis, which is followed by female foeticide and the birth of a test-tube baby in Bombay.

Infertility has been relatively neglected as both a health problem and a subject for social science research in South Asia, as in the developing world more generally. The general thrust of both programmes and research has been on the correlates of high fertility and its regulation rather than on

There can be little doubt that the last two hundred years have seen advances in health which have seldom before been witnessed in human history.

Squinting against the glare of the harsh fluorescent lights, a balding, middle aged man wearing a checked shirt and a worried look sat at the edge of the plastic chair in the white-tiled corridor of Bombay's Jaslok Hospital, tapping his foot on the floor with increasing nervousness.

Childbirth is a normal physiological process, which can become pathological due to the adoption of certain practices and consequently affect the health and survival of the newborn.

NORPLANT, an implant which when inserted in a woman's body prevents conception for five years if it is not removed, is to be introduced into the Indian family planning programme in selected centres. This has provoked much debate and not all are happy with this decision.

Men of the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland aid their wives during delivery of the newborn. Most men in the picture-postcard village of Chizami in Phek district believe it is shameful to depend on a neighbour's help when such a momentous event is taking place in their family.