The attitudes of 92 patients to student doctors in a maternity unit were assessed by questionnaire. A total of 76% of attitude statements by patients were favourable to the presence of student doctors. There was a significant trend for patients from lower social class groups to have more positive attitudes to student doctors (0.01 less than P less than 0.05). There was a slight tendency for male students to elicit more favourable attitudes than female students (0.05 less than P less than 0.05).