NEONATOLOGY TODAY News and Information for BC / BE Neonatologists and Perinatologists

Since its birth in the 1950s and 1960s, the history of neonatal intensive care has been remarkable. It has grown from a new field with limited resources and limited capabilities into a comprehensive, technologically advanced discipline able to address a wide range of newborn illnesses, and this growth has contributed to a rapid decline in neonatal mortality. Throughout this period, medical providers and public health officials have worked to understand how best to organize increasingly specialized obstetric and neonatal services. Regionalized perinatal care systems were developed to increase access for high-risk mothers and sick newborns to these services. The challenges of today are very different than those of several decades ago, however, and the planning of perinatal care has required continuous reevaluation and change. In this article, we will review the history of regionalization in perinatal and neonatal intensive care, and examine the issues currently facing the medical and public health communities with regards to the optimal organization of perinatal care systems.