Background Pregnancy and childbirth are socio-cultural events that carry varying meanings
across different societies and cultures. These are often translated into social expectations of …

Even childbirth is affected by globalization—and in India, as elsewhere, the trend is away
from home births, assisted by midwives, toward hospital births with increasing reliance on …

Sally Baden is a socio-economist working on gender issues, with specialist interests in
economic reform, markets and poverty. For the past six years, she has been manager of the …

This is the first sustained effort to compare South and South-East Asia in respect of the
situation of women. Arguing that kinship systems provide an important context in which …

This article provides an examination of the keynote and current literature concerning
traditional beliefs and practices pertinent to childbearing. Toward this aim, investigations …

Background Understanding of local knowledge and practices relating to the newborn period,
as locally defined, is needed in the development of interventions to reduce neonatal …

Appropriating Gender explores the paradoxical relationship of women to religious politics in
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Contrary to the hopes of feminists, many women …

Popular Western images of Indian women range from submissive brides behind their veils to
the powerful, active women of Indian politics. In this lively and unique book, Patricia and …

[TJraining has created almost as many problems in Nepal as it has solved. The most highly
trained are reluctant to work in the countryside, while middle-level training of villagers tends …

Background Urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace, especially in low-income countries.
Dhaka, Bangladesh, is estimated to grow to 50 million by 2015, with 21 million living in …