Offers a concise guide to understanding the placent - a unique organ involving both mother and child during pregnancy. Divided into fourteen chapters and an appendix and with 490 illustrations, it includes the structure and function of the normal placenta and then proceeds to review the major disorders and lesions, which occur as complications of a normal pregnancy and delivery. It includes not only pathology authors but also an obstetrician and radiologist who present an expert comprehensive review of diseases of the placenta. It is therefore a valuable reference for all three specialty groups in this field.