Perinatal Statistics
1 Department of Neonatology, "Manika Eliadi" Maternity Hospital, Athens 115 21, Greece
To the Editor.
Evaluation of the effect of good medical care of pregnant women and newborn infants and/or the impact of birth weight distribution on crude perinatal mortality rates is based upon the use of birth weight-specific mortality rates and standardized perinatal mortality rates.1-4 We agree with the suggestion made by Hermansen and Hasan5 that all future reports on perinatal statistics should comply with the recommendations made by WHO. Moreover, meaningful comparisons of standardized perinatal mortality rates over time and place require the use of a standard birth weight distribution.




