What to do and what not to do during pregnancy and what to feed and how to feed after delivery is a dilemma shared commonly by pregnant ladies, nursing mothers, doctors and other health care personnel. The problem is further compounded by a range of factors like false social myths at one extreme to modern day demanding life-style at the other extreme, especially if accompanied by social ailments like smoking, alcohol consumption and drug-addiction.

This book attempts to provide valuable knowledge about pregnancy and the necessary care that should be taken during uncomplicated pregnancy and pregnancies complicated by co-presence of diseases or co-consumption of drugs or substance abuse. We have attempted to update entire information on breastfeeding, alternative feeding and weaning. Additionally, the common problems of breastfeeding and bottle feeding has been dealt in a question-answer format for better understanding. This book also provides chapters on common neonatal problems like neonatal jaundice, neonatal skin care, immunization, physical and mental development, child abuse, nutritional value of food and nutritional requirements during pregnancy.

It may be mentioned that this book is not meant to be encyclopedic in its content but is tailored to provide necessary information regarding mother and child care.6

No book can be written without indebtedness to many people. We acknowledge our deepest gratitude to late FM Morrison and late Vijayee Singh for them being the leading source of inspiration in spite of not being bodily present. Our heartfelt thanks goes to Ms Deepika Padda, IAS for her expert guidance, drawn from her years of dedicated and selfless service as a Public Administrator. We are also indebted to Mrs Morrison for her contribution and blessings. We are thankful to Prof SP Srivastava, Prof V Sharma, and Prof SA Krishna for their moral support and suggestions. And of course this book would never have been possible without the encouragement and support of Rita Singh.