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.

On the World Population Day this year, there were two new features which are welcome: the first is the concern for environment in the context of population growth; and the second is the candid admission by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare that we must get rid of the tyranny of fami

Reproductive Health Matters has until this issue of the journal focused almost exclusively on secular threats to women’s reproductive rights.

It has been observed that in the 1960s, the Ig (index of marital fertility) in Sri Lanka for the first time, fell at least ten per cent below the plateau level of the pre-1960 decades [1].

Once effective methods of fertility limitation become widely available within a population, the impact of fertility intentions on subsequent fertility becomes a matter of both theoretical and practical importance.

Throughout history, women have practiced forms of birth control and abortion. These practices have generated intense moral, ethical, political and legal debates since abortion is not merely a techno-medical issue, but, "the fulcrum of a much broader ideological struggle in which the very meanings

Governmental efforts towards fertility reduction often face a dilemma: babies who are planners' worry are also a parent's hope and joy (Mandelbaum 1974:110). The beliefs of the people on this subject and what planners believe ought to be done may on occasion diverge substantially.

Once effective methods of fertility limitation become widely available within a population, the impact of fertility intentions on subsequent fertility becomes a matter of both theoretical and practical importance.

The importance of breast feeding in infant nutrition, health and survival has long been recognized. The recognition that lactation may have profound effects on maternal nutrition and fertility is of more recent origin.

A number of recent studies [A] [D] have documented evidence to show that couples have a decided preference for a particular sex combination of children. For example, in many South Asian countries, including India, there is a strong preference for sons over daughters.