Review

Woman-centred reports

Reproductive healthmatters
ed Marge Berer
Published twice yearly. Details: 0171-242 8686

Reproductive healthmatters is an English language journal published twice yearly but it might be more apt if the word ‘international’ was included in the title. Although published in the UK, the contributors are from both the developing and developed world. Its editorial policy includes ‘in-depth analyses of reproductive health matters from a women-centred perspective’, and it deliberately sets out to affect policy decisions and to promote services.

Papers are submitted in English, French and Spanish, and summaries in French and Spanish are provided for most articles. Going by issue 4, which I reviewed, articles are mostly short, descriptive and accessible to the lay reader. The range of issues is wide. Women’s attitudes and responsibilities towards having children are explored in papers from the West Indies, India and Egypt. There are papers giving graphic descriptions of women’s roles in raising children with and without support.

In rural Africa women raise their own children, and, often, foster children, some of whom are the result of their husband’s liaisons elsewhere, in the absence of husbands and with limited family support. In addition they fetch water and firewood, work in the fields, and must meet today’s pressing need for cash. Lacking status and the power to make decisions, they bear all the responsibility without any corresponding authority.

More familiar burdens in the developed world are those of inadequate housing, the circumstances of single mothers and the uncertainties surrounding matrimony and motherhood. Three short papers comment on the priorities given to infertility treatment in the context of limited public resources.

A substantial paper is devoted to examining a controversial, non-surgical method of sterilisation, and there is a collection of views on the use of vaccine contraceptives.

The journal is produced as a not-for-profit publication, supported by US and Danish benefactors. Copies are offered at a reduced rate or free to those, mainly in developing countries, who cannot afford the full price: £9 (individuals, £12 institutions).