Perinatal database in Germany.

By collecting standardized data from up to 600,000 deliveries per year in Germany a nation-wide database has been established in recent years enabling not only regional and overregional quality control, but also the scientific analysis of rare maternal and fetal complication. During the observation period of 10 years the understanding of perinatal risk factors has considerably improved and the perinatal mortality has declined from 9.4 to 6.4 (per 1,000 deliveries). From the huge amount of calculations typical results are presented.