Mature Woman Research Articles

The Cunning Little Vixen (review)

Reviewed by: The Cunning Little Vixen Byron Nelson The Cunning Little Vixen. By Leos Janácek. English National Opera, Coliseum, London. 10 March 1995. There are few more inviting introductions to twentieth century opera than Leos Janácek’s animal opera, The Cunning Little Vixen, which lays claim to serious discussions of human loneliness, sexual awakening, and ecology, as well as a joyful score, among its considerable and immediate charms. Consistent with its policy of presenting all operas in English (usually with relaxed tempos and restrained orchestral playing, in order to increase audience comprehension), the English National Opera’s production used Norman Tucker’s briskly contemporary translation of Janácek’s own Czech libretto. One suspects that such phrases as “I’m a feminist” and “bloody hell!” are closer to the spirit than the actual letter of Janácek’s—>Janácek’s text, which was [End Page 108] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. The English National Opera’s Revival of Leos Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, with Sara Fulgoni as the fox and Lesley Garrett as the vixen. Photo: Clive Barda [End Page 109] based on local newspaper animal cartoons and a subsequent series of newspaper columns. Maria Bjornson’s charming set consisted of a grassy hillock which allowed the animal characters to keep in constant motion, alternately tumbling and prancing and emerging from foxholes with trapdoors; to frame the earthly events, a set of grandmotherly birds sat knitting in rocking chairs suspended in trees. The hillock occasionally opened to reveal a playing space which served variously as a doghouse, chicken coop, and village pub for the forlorn human characters. The insect characters like the Dragonfly and Mosquito carried images of themselves on poles, while the human characters seemed vaguely Edwardian and definitely frustrated. David Pountney’s direction encouraged constant movement and animal-like energy among all the characters, and Stuart Hopps’s choreography took advantage of all the orchestral passages to keep animals flitting about the stage. As this is an opera about the cycle of life—maturation, curiosity, sexual awareness and fulfillment, death and regeneration—it is also one of the most infectiously optimistic of operas; Spinoza would have loved its clearly pantheistic message of the indissolvable intermingling of God, nature, and mankind in a seamless web of being. The title role is a dream for England’s operatic pop diva of the moment, Lesley Garrett, who was transformed from a curious young vixen who is caught by the Forester and subjected to various humiliations at the hands of people, to a sexually awakening animal (in something like a flapper dress) and mature woman—who dies cruelly at the peak of her fulfillment. Garrett was an ideal choice for the flirtatious, curious, and fatally adventurous aspects of the Vixen—always in motion and irresistibly optimistic. Sara Fulgoni undertook the pants role of the Fox who introduces the Vixen to mature sexual love, and their marriage is the occasion for a rapturous celebration among the animals at the end of the second act. The Forester, who initially captures the Vixen but who learns to surrender to the mystery of natural renewal at the opera’s climax, was sonorously sung by Nicholas Folwell. Among the lesser characters, John Graham-Hall (dressed like a proper Edwardian gentleman, down to plus-fours and bicycle clips), elegantly typified the alienation and loneliness of the human characters, who so painfully lack the spontaneity of the animals; Rachel Lopez beautifully danced the Spirit of the Vixen whom the chained-up Vixen watches forlornly from the doghouse. Chief among the scene-stealers were the Cock, doing a music-hall turn, and the Hens, dressed as refugee charladies from Monty Python, puffing on broken cigarettes while they wearily turned out their supply of eggs. Stephen Barlow’s conducting was happily indulgent of the singers, in the best tradition of ENO, which traditionally favors the audibility of the text over purely musical considerations, although there were still plenty of opportunities for orchestral richness, as in the gorgeous hunting-horn passage in the last act. The English have found a vein of pure gold in Janácek’s operas that Americans never have...

Somewhere Else in the Forest

fragments of a life which was once complete, disturbing fragments, close to us, ours for one moment, and then mysterious and unapproachable as the lines of a stone licked smooth by the wave of a shell in the sea's depths Giorgos Seferides, Delphi Et puis je vois tres bien ce qui va arriver, s'ecria Laura: dans ce romancier, vous ne pourrez faire autrement que de vous peindre. Andre Gide, Les Faux-Monnayeurs Daniel Martin is a long and winding road toward its own first sentence: Whole sight; or all the rest is desolation. novel describes the process by which its eponymous hero reaches that insight; at the same time it claims to be Dan's future reconstruction of that very process, so that the last two sentences in the book refer both backwards and forwards to the first sentence: That evening . . . Dan told [Jane] with a suitable irony that at least he had found a last sentence for the novel he was never going to write. She laughed at such flagrant Irishry; which is perhaps why, in the end, and in the knowledge that Dan's novel can never be read, lies eternally in the future, his ill-concealed ghost has made that impossible last his own impossible first. (668) At the center of Daniel Martin, says Kerry McSweeney, a man who is placed in a of stress through which he becomes aware of a deprivation, senses an inauthenticity and lack of freedom in his present existence . . . and is moved in the direction of the dark, existential unknown (31). This description would serve equally well for many a male protagonist in the Fowlesian universe: Nicholas in Magus, Charles in French Lieutenant's Woman and David in The Ebony Tower all undergo a similar process. Like them, Dan goes on a quest for his own self. most obvious differences between him and his predecessors are his age and a greater awareness of his predicament, but he is as unable as they are to do anything constructive about it on his own. As with the other male protagonists, the outcome of Dan's quest is dependent on a woman who seems to embody an existential challenge and who can act as his guide and muse towards whole sight. Sometimes in Fowles's fiction - in the cases of Alison, Sarah, and Isobel - the woman manages to lead the man to a new understanding of himself, of his limitations as well as his potentiality; and it is immaterial whether Nicholas, Charles and Michael actually get the girl at the end: the open endings of Magus, French Lieutenant's Woman and The Enigma all point to a new beginning. On other occasions - one thinks of Miranda, Diana, and Catherine - the woman's failure is due to some flaw in the man: Clegg learns nothing at all; David does learn something, but is incapable of acting on his knowledge; Peter seems doomed to look for new playthings in plastic playlets; and the allegedly open endings of Collector, The Ebony Tower and The Cloud are open only in the sense that a desert is open.(1) Jane's task in Daniel Martin is similar to that of the earlier heroines: to be the catalyst of the situation of stress, to open the man's eyes to the false allurements of his inauthentic existence and to inspire and embody creativity. But just as Dan is older than the earlier male protagonists, so Jane is a more mature woman than the previous incarnations of the muse in Fowles's fiction. One of the consequences of this is that the challenge she sets Dan is much less erotically charged than, say, the one Sarah presents for Charles; the sexual attraction which plays so large a part for earlier questers in Fowles's fiction is virtually non-existent in Jane. Consider, for example, the difference between the explosive, and for Charles literally stunning, sexual climax in chapter 46 of French Lieutenant's Woman and Dan's disappointed, yet sober, reaction after his and Jane's love-making in the paraffin-reeking room of Hotel Zenobia in Palmyra: it did not take place as he had dreamed, did not reach that non-physical climax he wanted, fused melting of all further doubt. …

A case illustration of resistance from a psychodynamic perspective

This clinical vignette illustrates a case of resistance during the course of a psychodynamic psychotherapy. The client is a chronically depressed woman struggling to expand beyond her familiar and in many ways gratifying role as a “good little girl” who seeks and often obtains reassurance and appreciation from paternalistic figures. She has also become increasingly aware of the cost of rigidly maintaining this role, which inhibits her experience of herself as a competent, assertive, and sexually mature woman. The client is at an advanced stage of her therapy, and in the vignette one sees her working through this conflict by addressing her experience both in her family of origin and in the therapeutic relationship. Her efforts to resolve this core issue, and her concurrent resistances, are exhibited in this presentation. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Albertine Necker de Saussure, the Mature Woman Author, and the. Scientific Education of Women

(1995). Albertine Necker de Saussure, the Mature Woman Author, and the. Scientific Education of Women. Women's Writing: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 141-153.

Relations between calcidiol serum levels and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with low bone density

The relationship between vitamin D and bone density was studied in 150 selected, mature (45-74), postmenopausal women with a lumbar spine Z score below 0. Vitamin D status was evaluated using calcidiol serum levels. Serum calcitriol and parathyroid hormone (PTH) values were also evaluated in some subjects. Bone mass was evaluated by ascertaining bone density and Z and T scores in the lumbar spine and femur region. The reference group consisted of 25 premenopausal women. The postmenopausal group was divided into subgroups according to age, i.e., under or over 60 years old. Additionally, the whole group was also subdivided according to their lumbar spine Z scores into group I (Z > -1), group II (Z < -1; > -2), and group III (Z < -2). Group III of postmenopausal women had higher PTH and lower calcitriol levels than premenopausal women. Calcidiol serum levels were lower in postmenopausal women groups II or III than in the group I and premenopausal women. Calcidiol serum levels and the bone mass values for the lumbar spine were correlated positively in all the postmenopausal women; in the women over 60 years of age, calcidiol levels also correlated with the bone mass values expressed as the bone density in three femur regions: femoral neck, trocanter, and Ward's triangle. In conclusion, mature post-menopausal woman showed high PTH levels and low calcidiol and calcitriol values. Calcidiol status is significantly related to bone mineral density in the lumbar spine and in women over 60 years, calcidiol levels also correlated with bone density in the femur regions.

Managing the menarche

The onset of periods is generally regarded as the major milestone in female puberty as it signals the approach of reproductive life. In the context of total development, menarche is just one step in a sequence of endocrine directed events which transform the child into a mature woman. In Western Europe, 95% of girls reach menarche between age 11 and 15 years, and this is normally in unison with near complete breast maturation and the decelerating phase of adolescent height growth. Clinical assessment of deranged menarche must therefore take account of past and current health, physical growth and progression through the stages of puberty. A normal progression through puberty is regarded as consonant, in contrast to that which has deviant progression, non-consonant. Investigation of abnormal puberty or menarche is guided by an understanding of the normal evolution of the hypothalamo-pituitarygonadal axis, and the resultant changes in ovarian and uterine structure and function.

Depression and body image disorders in adolescence

B oth depression and eating disorders have significant morbidity for adolescent girls and young women. These problems increase during adolescence,l-3 and there is some evidence that they increase above ultimate adult levels. 3 The gender differences that emerge in the adolescent period also persist into adulthood in both of these disorders. 4-6 Why are these disorders more prevalent among women than among men?7-9 The developmental issues involved may provide clues. The popular view of adolescence is that pubertal changes affect moods, and many have assumed that these biologic changes somehow create more mood problems for girls than for boys, leading to more serious psychopathology. Thus far, research has not adequately documented a direct link between pubertal change and moodiness, or the more serious problems of depression and eating disorders. 3 Although this lack of evidence may be in part due to the difficulty in studying these things in young people,lO we also need to examine the social factors associated with adolescent mood states and psychobiologic problems. The biologic changes of puberty are second only in rate and significance to what is seen in infancy, but the big difference is that adolescents can observe what is happening to them and their peers. Our research shows very clearly that biologic changes need to be examined along with changes in social contexts. Adolescence is also characterized by dramatic changes in every major social context, especially among family, peers, and school. 4, 11 Both biologic and social factors need to be considered for a complete picture.,10 Body image and depressive affect problems are linked to developmental change in each domain of individual development and each social context. 12 For example, pubertal development involves an increase in body fat as body shape changes. This increase in body fat is often misconstrued as a weight problem and is then associated with increases in dieting and other unhealthy behaviors related to weight gain. 13,14 This may lead to a distorted or poor body image and depressed affect for the cultural ideal of attractiveness (particularly for females) is one of a slender, long-limbed shape that is more typical of prepubertal development than of the mature woman's body after

A comparison of menstrual cycle profiles of salivary progesterone in British and Thai adolescent girls

Menstrual-cycle profiles of salivary progesterone concentration, obtained by radioimmunoassay of daily samples collected throughout the cycle, were obtained from Thai ( n = 232) and British ( n = 130) adolescent girls up to 4 years postmenarche. These profiles were graded from 1 to 5 ranging, respectively from concentrations at the detection limit of the assay to profiles generally observed for the mature premenopausal woman. Contingency table analysis of the grade frequencies for Thai-British pairs of girls matched for chronological age and age at menarche ( n = 2 × 90) demonstrated that British girls had more mature cycles ( 22 90 ) than Thais ( 11 90 ) ( P < 0.05) particularly in the first 2 years postmenarche ( P < 0.01). For these matched pairs of girls there was no evidence to support the view that girls with an early age of menarche develop their profiles more quickly following menarche than those with a late age of menarche, as previously reported and which was thought to be important in the development of breast cancer. The findings of this study also suggest that adolescent girls in Britain develop their menstrual cycle profiles of salivary progesterone more quickly than their Thai counterparts and this may be of value in formulating hypotheses regarding any role that ovarian progesterone secretion may have on subsequent breast cancer risk.

7 Menstrual changes in adolescence

Adolescent girls are a particularly sensitive group when any abnormality arises. The transformation from girl to woman involves fundamental changes in body shape and image, allowing the development of the fully mature and fertile woman. These pubertal changes involve growth, and the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics, subsequent to the maturation of the hypothalamo-pituitary--ovarian axis. The fact that the changes vary from person to person leads to management problems, as most girls judge their development through their peers. Failure to reach expected landmarks of development, especially the establishment of the menstrual cycle, can cause great distress and a thorough understanding of pubertal development is essential if the doctor is going to manage these problems effectively. NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY OF PUBERTY The release of the pituitary gonadotrophins is controlled by gonadotrophinreleasing hormone (GnRH) and the amplitude and frequency of its episodic secretion is controlled by the hypothalamus. The onset of puberty results from an increase in frequency and amplitude of GnRH from a centre in the hypothalamus called the pulse generator. Animal studies suggest that this is located in the arcuate nucleus of the mediobasal hypothalamus, and it is capable of functioning independently of neural connections (Plant, 1987). During fetal life, the pattern of hypothalamo-pituitary-ovarian activity is fascinating. Although data on the human are scant, animal studies suggest that GnRH, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) are detectable by 10 weeks gestation (Grumbach and Kaplan, 1976) and the pituitary portal system is intact by 14 weeks. The release of FSH and LH increases until mid-gestation, presumably because there is very little ovarian activity and thus no inhibitory feedback from oestradiol-17t3. The levels of FSH and LH are higher in female than male fetuses because the higher levels of circulating testosterone in the male fetus lead to negative feedback.

Gynecology and sexuality in middle-aged women.

In Sweden and other Western societies, the number of women above the age of 40 is increasing and health and well-being of middle-aged women is an increasing matter of concern. This study examines menstrual histories, gynecological operations, urinary incontinence, and reproductive functions in a representative sample of middle-aged women, as well as the frequency of climacteric symptoms and how to predict the women at risk for acquiring these symptoms. The sexuality of the mature woman as also explored. Women aged 37 to 66 years were randomly selected from the Census Register in Goteborg, Sweden. The bulk of information was obtained by means of questionnaires. Among the findings are that the median age for natural menopause was 50.9 years. Forty percent of the postmenopausal women reported frequent vasomotor symptoms. The occurrence of climacteric complaints is strongly connected to psychosocial variables. Every tenth woman reported frequent urinary leakage. Fifty-three percent of the women had undergone a D&C and 9% were hysterectomized. The woman around 40 reported few sexual partners (median 3) and her first intercourse occurred at age 18. Extramarital sex was uncommon. The masturbation rate was low and the frequency of homosexuality was extremely low. The majority of women had experienced orgasm.

Infantile cutaneous ideas

Disturbances in body image are important in dermatological practice. Thus, patients with either trichotillomania or artefactual dermatitis may modify their body image in the hope of attracting the attention of others, whilst patients with dysmorphophobia have a more fundamental delusional defect of body image. Body image is partly abstract, partly intellectual and perceptual and capable of modification by social factors such as advertising. Unfortunately, the public at large has a mediaeval percept about the structure and function of skin, whilst the cosmetic industry remains happy to build on to these unrealistic concepts. Thus, cosmetic advertising demands that the mature woman in 1987 should have plenty of hair on her head, but none on her face, under her arms or on her legs. Her skin should be free from grease, spots and wrinkles and, moreover, should be odourless. She should be thin, with inconspicuous breasts. In short, her skin should be prepubertal and her skin care therefore infantile. A large gap exists between these aspirations and reality and this type of advertising pressure may be at least in part responsible for cosmetic neurosis and may also play some part in the pathogenesis of cosmetic-based psychosis.

Physical Fitness for the Mature Woman

The ability to perform physical activity, whether at work or as recreation, is an important aspect of human experience for men and women of all ages. The extension of the range of physical power output that characterizes improvement in "physical fitness" is a desirable goal for all. It helps to make physical activity more enjoyable and less fatiguing, it can facilitate the learning of new skills and may actually improve cognitive functions, and it decreases the likelihood of physical injury and helps to speed recovery from injury. A sound mind in a sound body has been a medical ideal since Greek and Roman times. For a continuing state of good health, all systems--physical, mental, and spiritual--should be exercised in harmony. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average life span for women was barely 5 years beyond the menopause. Menopause heralded the twilight years of life and enhanced susceptibility to disease and deterioration of health. Today, women look forward to 25 additional years, a full one third of a lifetime; menopause now heralds potential promise, adventure, and exploration, an exciting new phase of the life cycle. Exercise represents a vital part of a prescription to maximize quality of life throughout this period. Physical conditioning cannot be expected to complete reverse the unrelenting effects of passing time, but it appears that it can substantially modify this process. Functional losses that in the past have been attributed only to age may, in fact, represent a combined effect of biologic aging and physical inactivity. Exercise helps to maintain the physiologic adaptations that support an enhanced biologic reserve in body systems that tend to lose reserve capacity with advancing age. "If you don't use it, you lose it!," and its positive corollary, "If you use it, you enthuse it!," may be maxims that imply a natural law of deep consequence. An optimal diet and suitably vigorous activity are advisable for all women as they enter the postmenopausal phase of life. Every mature woman ought to carefully consider choosing to pursue an appropriate goal: active participation in a specific exercise program under medical supervision. The health care system should be fully responsive to the special needs of the mature woman, and the importance of providing programs of physical activity designed to address these needs should be recognized. For the postmenopausal woman, the advantages of achieving a state of physical fitness are many.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

The Mature Woman in America: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1979–1982. Children and Divorce: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide. Violence in the Family; An Annotated Bibliography. Ethnicity and Aging: A Bibliography. Social Welfare in America: An Annotated Bibliography

The Mature Woman in America: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1979–1982. Children and Divorce: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide. Violence in the Family; An Annotated Bibliography. Ethnicity and Aging: A Bibliography. Social Welfare in America: An Annotated Bibliography Get access The Mature Woman in America: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1979–1982. Compiled by Dolan Eleanor and Gropp Dorothy M.Washtington, D.C.: National Council on the Aging, 1984. 122 pp. $10.00 paper.Children and Divorce: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide. By Hausslein Evelyn B.New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1983. 129 pp. $18.00.Violence in the Family; An Annotated Bibliography. Compiled by Kemmer Elizabeth. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1984. 204 pp. $24.50.Ethnicity and Aging: A Bibliography. Compiled by Murguia Edward Schultz Tena M. Markides Kyriakos S., and Janson Philip. San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press, 1984. 132 pp. $18.00.Social Welfare in America: An Annotated Bibliography. Edited by Trattner Walter I. and Achenbaum W. Andrew. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. 324 pp. $35.00. Max Siporin Max Siporin School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 30, Issue 3, May-June 1985, Page 274, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/30.3.274 Published: 01 May 1985

Deceived with Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood

This account of a Bloomsbury childhood is also the record of a young girl's particular struggle to emerge from that extraordinary and intense milieu as a mature independent woman.

Book Reviews : The Mature Woman in America: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1979-1982, compiled by Eleanor F. Dolen and Dorothy M. Gropp (1984). Washington, D.C.: The National Council on the Aging, Inc., 122 pp. $10.00 paper

Book Reviews : The Mature Woman in America: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, 1979-1982, compiled by Eleanor F. Dolen and Dorothy M. Gropp (1984). Washington, D.C.: The National Council on the Aging, Inc., 122 pp. $10.00 paper

New Jersey Shakespeare Festival

shock to an audience prepared rather for the poignant accents of Juliet's tender farewell. It was a daring directorial stroke; but its chief effect was in some degree to distract the audience from attending to the touching decorum of Juliet's last words to her lover's corpse. While one sometimes felt that the young persons of the drama would have been equally at home in Saturday Night Fever, Leslie Geraci made an appealing Juliet. In early moments of the play, it was hard to believe that this figure could muse thoughtfully on the prodigious birth of love, or consider any love-contract rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden; over the course of the evening, however, the actress managed to suggest something at least of Juliet's change from innocent girl to mature woman. Charles Shaw-Robinson gave us an athletic Romeo, but one in no way distinguished by sensitivity of spirit from the group of well-fixed corner-boys who are his associates. As for Randle Mell's Tybalt, beyond a certain hauteur, there was nothing of the particular capacity for hate that from the first informs and directs this character. Alone of all these younger figures, Tom Robbins, playing Mercutio, took full advantage of his part's potential, in this case for fantastical extravagance. He came equipped with a rapier, but made play chiefly with an emphatically phallic six-foot wooden staff, pointing up every sexual suggestion. Now and then one felt that this figure had wandered in from some other play: hints of a manic-depressive personality hung about him. The audience loved Mercutio, however, and with some cause, for Robbins brought sparkle and vivacity to the part. No presentation of Romeo and Juliet can go altogether wrong if the persons who play Friar Laurence and the Nurse understand their craft. Richard Ooms and Claudia Wilkens, experienced players both, delivered Shakespeare's lines with sympathy and point, suiting action to the word, confidently observing the modesty of nature. The audience felt comfortable with these figures, and perceptibly relaxed when either was onstage. Given the present-day emphasis of Jackson's, staging, one might have expected modern dress: in the event, however, the costumes, designed by Jeanne Button, were satisfyingly rich and Elizabethan. John Jensen's impressive single set was employed with intelligence and imagination in the director's swiftly-paced rendering of the tragedy.

The adolescent's first pregnancy: a controlled study.

The records of 1,021 primigravida women who delivered single infants from 1973 to 1976 and who were in the adolescent (ages 10-15) and mature (ages 20-24) age groups were reviewed. It was found that the adolescent patient is more often black and unmarried, and has less prenatal care than the mature woman. There was a higher frequency of hypertensive disorders in the adolescents but this was related to race. The adolescent had fewer breech deliveries and more postpartum endometritis and premature deliveries. There was no significant difference in the fetal, neonatal, and perinatal mortality in the adolescent pregnancies.

Re-Entry Women: A Selective Review of the Educational Process, Career Choice, and Interest Measurement

Overview This review examines some factors related to the of women to postsecondary education and draws implications for needed research. It includes areas that are necessary to the larger goals of studying educational and career patterns of women, and to the development of adequate program evaluation models. The first part of the review considers barriers and opportunities in postsecondary education for the mature woman. These barriers include college restrictions, family resistance, and financial problems, as well as attitudinal and selfconcept characteristics. Opportunities are examined in a review of frequently proposed solutions: counseling and special programs. One factor that limits these solutions at present is current theory and research on career choice for women, especially the re-entry woman. These major theories are briefly noted, as well as the findings of recent research studies, in the second part of this review. The third part deals specifically with a tool used by counselors-interest inventories. The issue of sex bias in interest measurement is discussed and recent research in the area is reviewed. The review concludes with implications for needed research-theoretical, programmatical, and in the area of interest measurement.

CURRENT STATUS OF MENOPAUSE AND POSTMENOPAUSAL ESTROGEN THERAPY

Consultant Gynaecologist, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town Director, Mature Woman's Clinic, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town*

Nutritional Influences During Pregnancy

Maternal nutrition represents one of the important influences on the course and outcome of pregnancy and attention to nutritional factors (i.e., assessment of nutritional status, dietary advice, and follow-up evaluation) properly constitute an essential component of prenatal care. Nearly all nutrients are required in increased amounts during gestation but the magnitude of the increase varies from nutrient to nutrient. Caloric needs increase by 300 kcal per day, representing an addition of 15 per cent, and should be sufficient to support a weight gain averaging 350 to 400 gm per week during the last two trimesters. Total protein intake during pregnancy should be 1.3 gm per kg for the mature woman and somewhat higher for the adolescent. Gestational needs for iron cannot be met by diet and supplementation (in the form of simple ferrous salts, 30 to 60 mg daily) should be provided. Folate requirements are doubled during pregnancy and, while these can be met by diet, supplementation may be considered as an option. Provision of the gestational calcium allowance from food sources is readily possible if (and only if) daily products are consumed. The generally increased need for other nutrients can be provided readily by the properly selected diet. Thus, with respect to supplements, iron and perhaps folate should be advised routinely while other vitamin-mineral supplements are probably neither helpful nor harmful. Prescription of vitamin-mineral supplements cannot be expected to compensate for poor dietary habits. Dietary restriction of nutrients in general, and energy and sodium in particular, has the potential for impairing the maternal capacity to make the required physiologic adjustments of pregnancy and interfering with fetal development. Restriction of any nutrient to levels below the guidelines provided by the Recommended Dietary Allowances is rarely if ever advisable.