How is it that hibernating mother bears don’t eat and drink, but still produce baby bears that are not growth retarded? When there is some restriction of nutrient supply to the human fetus, what are the adaptive mechanisms that are made successfully in one pregnancy and not so successfully in another? These are among the many challenging questions considered by expert contributors to this 1996 workshop on placental function and fetal nutrition. Much of the work reported is from animal studies, and species differences and developmental considerations inevitably …