This book has been written to provide hope, support, motivation and focus for couples who are trying to conceive a child. It has evolved from a body of research carried out in the form of hundreds of interviews with childless couples, their doctors, and fertility specialists. Dr Konecna, (who was for many years childless herself and therefore has a profound empathy and understanding of the issues) is able to consider the deeply emotional subject of involuntary childlessness both from the scientific viewpoint of a professional obstetrician and from the humanitarian aspect of a sympathetic mother herself. On the Quest for a Child succeeds on a number of levels - the medical problems causing the inability to conceive, the psychological suffering endured, the remedies and solutions to be considered, and the legal/ethical issues to be confronted - all are dealt with thoroughly, and across an international, multi-cultural range of cases. It is hoped that this book will bring comfort to anyone who is going through the pain of childlessness, but will also be read and valued by medical practitioners, specialists, psychologists, social workers and allied health professionals who deal with childlessness in their daily work.