This new addition to our highly successful A Practical Approach to Anesthesia series is a comprehensive, accessible guide to obstetric anesthesia, with the substance and depth of a textbook and the convenient, user-friendly features of a handbook. It focuses sharply on clinical issues and is written in outline format for quick reference, with numerous tables, figures, and photographs. Major sections cover pharmacology and physiology, antepartum considerations, labor and delivery, postpartum issues, and disease states in obstetric patients, including a chapter on obesity and pregnancy. The concluding chapter reviews current guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Academy of Pediatrics.