This book is the 42nd in a series of public health papers published by the World Health Organization. In summary fashion it deals with the collection of perinatal epidemiological and statistical data, specific perinatal medical problems, the organization of care, and the required directions of perinatal training and research.
Reading this book reacquaints one with the painful process of making decisions and recommendations by committee and the rapidity with which our technical world moves, dating some of the statements in this relatively recent publication.
Most of the recommendations made in this book will find wide agreement among working perinatologists. There is even a recommendation that in the basic training of every physician "the time allocated to neonatology should be between a quarter and a third of that devoted to pediatrics."
There are some portions of the book that are not particularly helpful. The discussion of the clinical terminology surrounding hyaline