The objectives of these surveys are to: • measure the principal indicators of health status, medical practices during pregnancy and delivery, and perinatal risk factors; their changes from earlier national perinatal surveys, including similar surveys before 1995 [3], can thus be followed; The objective of this article is to describe the perinatal situation in 2010 in metropolitan France (oversea territories

excluded) and put it into perspective by looking at results from earlier surveys for the principal indicators of health, medical practices and risk levels. All four surveys followed the same protocol. Data collection covered all births during one week, that is, all liveborn or stillborn children, in public and private maternity units — as well as children born outside these institutions and subsequently transferred to one — at a gestational find more age of at least 22 weeks or weighing at least 500 g at birth. In 2010, maternity check details units with more than 2000 annual deliveries were allowed to spread data collection out over two weeks, by collecting data for all births

every other day [4]. The information came from three sources: an interview with women in the postpartum ward, to obtain information about their social and demographic characteristics and prenatal care, data from the medical files about complications of pregnancy and delivery and the child’s health status at birth, and another form completed by the head of the maternity unit describing its principal institutional characteristics. Several institutions were involved in these surveys. The general organisation and development of the questionnaire

were provided by the French national institute for health and medical research (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale [Inserm U953]), and the Ministry of Health (the Directorate-General of Health [Direction générale de la santé] and the Direction of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics [Direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation et des statistiques, DREES]), as well as a scientific committee including representatives from district level Maternal and Child Health Services (physicians or midwives), directorates Resminostat responsible for health care services and social services in the Ministry of Health, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (Institut de veille sanitaire), the regional and district social and health service bureaus (DRASS and DDASS), the regional health observatories (ORS), professional societies (anesthetists, midwives, obstetricians and pediatricians), and consumer groups. Inserm coordinated the study at the national level, and the Maternal and Child Health Services of most districts at the district level. Inserm produced the report that served as the basis of this article [4]; in addition, for the 2010 survey, the DREES drafted a report describing the characteristics and practices of the maternity units [5].