The birth survey in Germany — education and quality control in perinatology

doi:10.1016/0028-2243(94)90075-2

European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology

Volume 54, Issue 1, 31 March 1994, Pages 13-20

https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-2243(94)90075-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Perinatal mortality in Germany fell during the past four decades from 5% in 1955 to 0.5–0.6% in 1992. This decrease was achieved by organisational health improvements: movement from home to hospital deliveries, mother protection law, guiding principles for prenatal care, pregnancy passport, regionalisation of high risk cases; and medical achievements: fetal monitoring before and during labor, ultrasound technics and neonatal intensive care units with neonatal monitoring, PEEP ventilation and surfactant application. This movement has been supported in the last decade by the implementation of a perinatal survey, starting in Munich, Bavaria in 1975 and distributed, since 1980, over all the states of Germany. The perinatal review is a birth data assessment on a voluntary basis, which provides the opportunity to compare the data with the mean of the participating hospitals. It is therefore an instrument for selfeducation and selfcontrol. It is also used for analysing long-term trends (i.e. caesarean section rate) and for estimating implemented obstetrical managements (i.e. corticosteroid treatment) on a large data pool. Perinatal reviews support the goal to keep the perinatal mortality low or even to achieve a further decrease.

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Clinical indications and perceived effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine in departments of obstetrics in Germany: A questionnaire study
2009, European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
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The present study is limited by the fact that it was only able to evaluate the perceived rates and not the exact rates of CAM use in the six common obstetric scenarios. Including an assessment of CAM use in obstetrics in the mandatory national birth surveys was favoured by most of our study respondents as a means of gathering better information and, if this were achieved, future analyses would allow conclusions to be made on the safety and perhaps even on the effectiveness of the most frequently used methods [26]. Of course, conducting prospective randomised trials would also be an important way of gathering evidence, but hey might face several difficulties, not least of which could be the problem of finance.
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CAM methods were widely offered despite the lack of evidence of effectiveness or information on adverse consequences. In Germany, including CAM in the mandatory national quality assurance measures and perinatal surveys would provide valuable information; CAM use elsewhere merits further study.
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The birth survey in Germany — education and quality control in perinatology

Abstract

Gesetzliche und soziale Grundlagen der Schwangerenvorsorge. Qualitätskontrollen

Hausgeburtshilfe und Klinikgeburtshilfe in Kiel 1945–1968

Möglichkeiten zur Verbesserung der Schwangerenüberwachung im Rahmen der Mutterschafts-Richtlinien

Münchner Perinatal-Studie 1975–1977

Die Bayerische Perinatal-Erhebung in Niedersachsen

Qualitätskontrolle und Qulaitätssicherung in der Geburtshilfe durch die hessische Perinatalstudie (HEPS)