This second edition of the Handbook of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has become necessary because of the increasing growth in know ledge and changing ideas on Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Never theless, we have attempted to maintain the same basic approach and concepts to student learning as we evinced in the first edition. Any changes to the text are updating of existing practices and knowledge or correction of errors in the original text. The Handbook is still a guide to achieving mastery of the undergraduate curriculum, but over the past five years we have realised the book is also widely used...