Perinatal Care Center System for High Risk Pregnancy and Newborn in Japan / 대한주산의학회잡지

ABSTRACT

The perinatal period is defined as a specific time period between the late pregnancy and the early neonatal life, which is focused on the special and consistent care for the conception, delivery, maternity and the baby. In Korea, the department of obstetrics and neonatology are separated so there is no formal coordinated perinatal center for the high risk maternity and the neonate. Recently, there has been a remarkable improvement in neonatal, infant, and perinatal mortality rate due to advanced treatment techniques in obstetrics and neonatology, however these are not as sufficient as those of Japan, where the mortality rate is the world's lowest. Several reasons can be cited but the most important is the lack of perinatal center controlled by the nation, which is operated very efficiently in Japan. Nowadays, the importance and necessity of perinatal center is recognized in Korea and the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare started to investigate and plan the operation of the national perinatal center. Therefore, the authors intended to make review on Japanese perinatal center operation system to obtain more qualified information for the institution of Korean perinatal center.