This is a comprehensive yet concise review of contemporary British obstetric anaesthesia. The first chapters cover the anaesthetic considerations for assisted conception and early pregnancy. The fundamentals of physiology, pharmacology, and management of analgesia and anaesthesia in normal pregnancy and delivery and operative delivery follow. An excellent and extensive review of anaesthetic, obstetric and medical complications, with short chapters devoted to a single topic, forms a substantial portion of the text. The penultimate chapters deal with neonatal aspects and the puerperiuim and finally there is a helpful section devoted to organisational matters.

Overall the content is accurate, up to date and clearly presented. It is pertinent to everyday clinical practice and also deals with management of less frequent problems. Balanced views of all current management options for each clinical situation are presented. Key points of each chapter are summarised in a table. It is easy to identify topics at a glance in the table of contents and the index works well. Space limits the number of references and these are provided in a rather haphazard manner, some chapters having several and others none.

This book will be of value to anaesthetic trainees and more senior obstetric anaesthetists as it covers both the fundamentals of routine obstetric anaesthesia and the more complex problems encountered less frequently. As a small volume, which may be easily carried, it compares favourably with other texts in this category.