Objective: The present article reviews the recent literature on various issues related to maternity services and fertility in Spain and elsewhere.
Method: Information obtained from several official sources, technical reports, and the scientific literature produced in the last 5 years were used.
Results: Maternity is assigned insufficient importance due to cultural changes, women's difficulties in the labor market, inadequate public policies to support families, and deficiencies in the quality of pre- and postdelivery maternity care.
Conclusions: Increased fertility rates may transform the organization of productive and reproductive work and the development of health and social services, and may stimulate improvement in institutional support.