That foetal medicine is now almost a distinct discipline in itself, reflects on the growing number of techniques for prenatal diagnosis and foetal therapy. These form the subject matter of this first volume in what is to become a regular series of reviews in foetal medicine. Although the new diagnostic technique of measuring foetal blood gas status have been covered (in a chapter edited by P. Soothill), most of this volume is devoted to finding out how things are going wrong (such as malformations) and to suggesting treatment. An international authorship includes D. J. Weatherall (writing on gene therapy); M. R. Harrison (on experimental foetal malformations and their correction); J. W. Wladimiroff (on medical treatment of the foetus), and R. Berkowitz (on invasive foetal therapy and surgical treatment).