AbstractPragmatic approaches to safe motherhood consider the needs of both clients and providers: the sociological and physical environments within which a woman lives and moves through to reach a level of care that fulfills her health needs; and the conditions of formal and traditional health care systems within which a health care provider works and moves through to reach a level of professional satisfaction and quality care that fulfills her/his needs and responsibilities. These movements toward higher levels of ‘care’ are interdependent; without one, the other falters. Clients and providers are partners in this ‘dance’ of health. Five approaches employed by the MotherCare Project shape maternal health programs. Presented in geometric form, they each describe movements leading client and provider to more satisfying positions in receiving and giving health care, respectively. Strategies to enhance these movements are the subject of the subsequent chapters of this supplement.