Most women giving birth in rural communities throughout the Third World cannot enjoy the "benefits" of modern medical assistance. They are usually too expensive and too far away. This book is the result of journeys and conversations between the author, traditional midwives and mothers which took place over several years in Malaysia and Indonesia. It describes traditional birthing practices and the communities in which they have arisen. For normal births the safety record is impressive, but so too is the reassurance of ritual and the incorporation of birthing into family and society. It is...

'An excellent basis for thinking about the future of the world's population. Every contributor to the population-environment debate needs to read the demographic sense the book contains and lecturers in population matters around the globe should recommend it to their students' Applied Geography 'The most authoritative assessment available of the extent to which population is likely to grow' Development and Cooperation 'Lutz and his colleagues at IIASA have done a masterful job of presenting and explaining the dominant approach to forecasting the world's population and the population of its...

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.