Dr Charles Savona-Ventura recently launched a book entitled The History of Maternity Care in the Maltese Islands, published by the Association for the Study of Maltese Medical History, and sponsored by Wyeth.

The first chapter gives an overview of the maternity care offered in Malta in the light of the developments in the speciality that were occurring in Europe. The second chapter deals with the various maternity care services, and the professional control and training facilities of both midwives and doctors as these developed on the Islands. The third and fourth chapters detail the medical and obstetrical aspects of maternity care practice in the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries; while the final chapter looks at the social and biological influences on maternity as evident from the published obstetric statistics.