Perinatal statistics of a 15-year period in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia.

Perinatal statistics are one of the most essential outcome indicators used by many developed countries in order to evaluate perinatal services provided to newborns. In this retrospective study, we collected 15 years of perinatal data at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in order to determine stillbirth and other mortality rates in our institute and compare them with international figures. A total of 58,073 babies were evaluated. Data were collected from maternal and neonatal registry books and from perinatal mortality and morbidity meeting reports between 1994 and 2008. Data were entered and analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The stillbirth rate was 11.7/1000, early neonatal death rate was 3.4/1000, perinatal mortality rate (PMR) was 14.9/1000, and corrected PMR was 11.9/1000. Our rates were not significantly different from those of North American and European ones. We noticed a dramatic reduction in the corrected PMR in the last 3 years of the study because of greater advancement in perinatal and neonatal care. Our mortality rates were comparable to the North American and European rates which may reflect the quality of perinatal care provided in our institute.