[Study of the reasons for therapeutic abortions, stillbirth and neonatal mortality in the Brittany region in 1991]. / Etude des causes des interruptions thérapeutiques de grossesse, de mortinatalité et de mortalité néonatale en région Bretagne, année 1991.

The reasons for 186 medically indicated terminations of pregnancy, 178 stillbirths, and 126 neo-natal deaths were analysed by a multi-disciplinary team after a thorough enquiry into the social and medical context for the deaths or for the decision to interrupt the pregnancies. This was undertaken on the initiative of the regional technical consultative commission for enquiring into births, and according to a protocol that had already been partly used by a group studying the neonatal period in Ille and Vilaine. A comparison of the causes according to the type of death shows the value of following up these three indicators to the plan and appropriate policy for three weeks following delivery. A certain number of questions about definitions and classifications still have arisen.

[Neonatal mortality at the Ille-et-Vilaine department. Results in 1987]. / Etude de la mortalité néo-natale dans le département d'Ille-et-Vilaine. Résultats en 1987.

All 56 neonatal deaths that occurred during 1987 in Ille-et-Vilaine department (France) were systematically analysed, and the history of pregnancy, delivery, neonatal resuscitation, circumstances under which death occurred in neonatal care unit as well as autopsy findings were studied. Each case was then discussed by a multidisciplinary staff and consensus was obtained regarding diagnosis and cause of death. There were 2 separate categories: 26 deaths (46%) were due to related to malformation, or to metabolic dysfunction; 30 deaths were a result of other causes (54%): 9 low birth weight, 5 respiratory disorders, 5 neurologic disorders, 6 infectious diseases, 2 hemorrhagic shock and 3 were of unknown etiology. Information on causes of neonatal death in a specific region may aid in determining public health priorities for that region; if similar studies were carried out in each department, and results compared, this could aid in setting the guidelines for more efficient health treatments and lead to national choices about neonatal public health.