This textbook for undergraduates seeks to equip them with the essential skills required in obstetrics covering care during pregnancy, delivery and its complications and wellbeing of the infant and the mother after the delivery. The special features of the book are:

• exhaustive coverage of the core areas as relevant to the undergraduate syllabus
• special focus on Indian conditions where there are socioeconomic aspects related to health care like poverty, domestic violence and gender discrimination. The book seeks to sensitise the student to these aspects
• stress on evidence-based medicine and clinical evaluation to reduce the cost of seeking health care
• section on demography and contraception is also tailored to Indian conditions

Asha Oumachigui, R Soundararaghavan and S Habeebullah have considerable experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduates at JIPMER, Puducherry. They have brought innovative methodologies to medical teaching