OBJECTIVE This study investigated whether regional differences in perinatal mortality rates are related to distances to medical resources for perinatal care, such as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). METHODS Using the census for Japan in 2000, all municipalities in Japan were classified into four groups based on population size: municipalities of 1,000,000 people or more (Group 1), mun...

OBJECTIVE Investigation of the implementation and results of the national term perinatal mortality audit. DESIGN Population-based cohort study. METHOD Perinatal audits were carried out in all 90 Dutch hospitals with obstetric departments together with the surrounding midwifery practices. These audits involved cases of term perinatal mortality. Various registries were used to collect data re...

Current early diagnosis, surveillance and intervention options make it hard to determine the natural course of twin pregnancies, especially regarding spontaneous preterm delivery and perinatal mortality. We studied the natural course in monochorionic (MC) and dichorionic (DC) twin pregnancies in a historical cohort. Twin pregnancies were studied in a unique database of 651 twin pairs born in th...

BACKGROUND Facility-based delivery has gained traction as a key strategy for reducing maternal and perinatal mortality in developing countries. However, robust evidence of impact of place of delivery on maternal and perinatal mortality is lacking. We aimed to estimate the risk of maternal and perinatal mortality by place of delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS We conducted a systematic rev...

)reliable statistical reporting systems for a few countries extending back to World War II show that perinatal mortality rates have continuously fallen. To understand the reasons for this trend, 2 kinds of studies must be distinguished: studies which relate observed perinatal mortality rates or changes in rates to social, demographic, and other factors; and studies which set out "experimental...

BACKGROUND Increasing studies show that immigrants have different perinatal health outcomes compared to native women. Nevertheless, we lack a systematic examination of the combined effects of immigrant status and socioeconomic factors on perinatal outcomes. Our objectives were to analyse national Belgian data to determine 1) whether socioeconomic status (SES) modifies the association between ma...

BACKGROUND perinatal mortality is the sum of still birth (fetal death) and early neonatal death (ENND) i.e. death of live newborn before the age of 7 completed days. Perinatal mortality accounts three fourth of the deaths of the neonatal period and is one of the major challenges for under-five mortality. Therefore this study was conducted to better understand the common and avoidable factors th...

OBJECTIVES To explore the use of local civil registration data to assess the perinatal mortality in a typical rural county in a less developed province in China, 1999-2000. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. Pregnancies in a cohort of women followed from registration of pregnancy to outcome of infant seven days after birth. SETTING Routine family planning records in 20 rural townships in ea...

BACKGROUND Using spatial analysis tools to determine the spatial patterns of China province-level perinatal mortality and using spatial econometric model to examine the impacts of health care resources and different socio-economic factors on perinatal mortality. METHODS The Global Moran's I index is used to examine whether the spatial autocorrelation exists in selected regions and Moran's I s...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Several prestigious agencies routinely rank countries based on crude perinatal and infant mortality rates, while more recently, international neonatal networks have begun comparing neonatal mortality and morbidity rates among very preterm and very low-birth-weight infants. We discuss the methodologic challenges that compromise such comparisons and potential remedies. RECENT ...