Concerned professionals in various parts of the country have formed crisis-oriented counseling services to meet the needs of women who request abortions. This article presents information obtained from a sample of women seeking abortions and discusses the counselor's role in the decision making process. (Author)

Examines the effect of nutritional supplementation provided to mothers during pregnancy and lactation on the mental and motor development of their infants. While neither sex nor mental differences could be attributed to supplementation, motor development in infants was affected. (Author/MP)

Proposes a phase model describing the course of first pregnancy, while outlining an extended view of pregnancy as both a biological and psychosocial process. Four ideal phase types are distinguished: a disruption phase of radical change, an adaptation phase of readjustment, a centering phase focused on production, and a final phase of anticipation…

Compares the social structuring of birth and death and proposes a more general framework: transitions into and out of life. Discusses changes in these events fostered by modernization, exploring the role of dying and birthing individuals, the family's place, control of information, medical components, collective action, and the uses of ritual.…

This first part of a two-part article dealing with laws relating to working women and pregnancy examines the socio-legal developments preceding passage of the Pregnancy Disability Amendment, the basic provisions of the bill, and its impact on employers, employees, and unions in its first three years. (Author/MLF)

Traces the use of the "continuity" motif in the Right to Life movement's rhetoric and its influence on the depiction of the abortion controversy. Analyzes how the motif functions rhetorically to aid the movement in defining its activities and involvement. (PD)

Reviews research on the response of normal women to a variety of aspects of pregnancy. Discusses motivation, physical aspects, emotional response, interpersonal changes, and relationships among response to pregnancy, postpartum reaction, and infant status. Presents a discussion of several theoretical phychological perspectives. (MK)

The Massachusetts court held that the exclusion of pregnant women from a disability program was facially discriminatory because pregnancy alone was the determinative criterion. Available from Suffolk University Law Review Office, 41 Temple Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02114; sc $3.50. (Author/IRT)

The author compares and analyzes American and Taiwanese maternity care systems, discussing the history of midwifery in Taiwan; the process by which a midwife establishes her practice; and her role in childbirth, abortion, adoption, and other services. (Author/DS)

Although fetal alcohol syndrome is a preventable disease, it is hard to control because identification of the alcoholic mother is difficult. (MM)

This report presents nonexperimental retrospective data on the weights, menstrual cycle intervals, pregnancy symptoms, and running programs of two women who exercised intensely during their first two trimesters. Although these two cases suggest that strenuous anaerobic exercise during pregnancy is not harmful, more studies are needed. (IAH)

Examined changes in marital adjustment following birth of first child in longitudinal study of 97 couples. Couples completed questionnaires during pregnancy and at 1 and 6 months postpartum. Both husbands and wives peaked in reported marital adjustment at 1 month postpartum; both showed significant decline in marital adjustment at 6 months…

Examined 43 unplanned pregnancies in 14-21 year olds. Explored alcohol use, amount of alcohol consumed, use of other drugs, planning of intercourse, nonuse of contraception, demographics. Findings suggest that drug or alcohol use may have been factor in pregnancy risk taking for some subjects; that women may be more psychologically vulnerable to…

Describes the Teen Pregnancy Project, which began in Savannah, Georgia, in 1981 as an effort to reduce mortality rates of at-risk infants, and has grown into a multiservice program with many approaches. Stresses the need for a home visitation initiative to reach clients. (SKC)