In recent decades, the most common means by which couples regulate fertility have changed from methods requiring control or cooperation by men, e.g., condoms, withdrawal and periodic abstinence, to those for which women bear primary responsibility e.g., virtually all-reversible modern methods.

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.