Mother-baby inpatient psychiatric care in different countries: data collection and issues - introduction.

The material was presented during a symposium on "Mother-Baby joint admission for mental health care in different countries" at the Marcé Society International Biennial Scientific Meeting in Sydney (Australia) in 2002 (25-27 September 2002). The introduction stresses the main contribution of each of the six papers. It discusses the general context of perinatal psychiatry and offers guidelines for perinatal health care.