Improve national capacity for perinatal health reporting by ensuring that each country can provide the full set of Euro-Peristat indicators using appropriate definitions as well as by improving ascertainment of very preterm births and maternal deaths. Wider linkage of data sources, building on methods already in use in Europe, could yield immediate gains for perinatal health monitoring in many countries.

Reinforce European collaborations to produce and use these data. The Euro-Peristat network has published 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals based on these data. Other researchers have also used the Euro-Peristat data for research on perinatal health in their own countries. We expect that these new data from 2010 – which allow exploration of time trends in maternal and infant health–to further highlight the value of having comparable data from the countries in Europe.

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Jennifer Zeitlin, INSERM, Project Leader
Ashna Mohangoo, TNO, Project Coordinator
Marie Delnord, INSERM, Project Manager
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Tel: +33 (0)1.42.34.55.77 or 55.86