Without reform of the perinatal care system, it will "sink", warn together, the French Society of Perinatal Medicine (SFMP), several learned societies and an association of users who appeal Saturday to the government.
"It is imperative to rethink and reorganize our perinatal care system, because, today, all indicators are red," alarmed the SFMP in an article published by Le Monde.
Children dying, maternity wards closing
The observation is particularly based on the worrying increase in infant mortality over the last decade, which places the country in 25th place in Europe when in 2012, the France was in 2nd position.
"When we know the situation of maternity wards, how can we not make the link between these alarming indicators and the deterioration of working conditions?" ask these doctors and users.
A few days after the publication in the press of the conclusions of a report presented to the Academy of Medicine which proposes to reduce the number of maternity hospitals by 20% in France, the authors of the tribune call on the public authorities to put an end to their "inertia" and ask that the perinatal care system be rethought "in a global way, realistic and coherent."
Call for a Perinatal Conference
"The technical platforms must be grouped in better-equipped and computerized maternity wards that accommodate several levels of care and offer working conditions that allow patients and their children to be accompanied safely and well-treated," say the co-signatories.
This "grouping of technical platforms" which will result in maternity closures "must be accompanied by the multiplication of perinatal centers of proximity (CPP)", they add.
The SFMP, the other signatory medical learned societies and the SOS Prema users' association are calling for the meeting of the National Conference on Perinatality.
Aware of the politically sensitive nature of maternity closures, they call for an "awareness of the stakes by the population" which alone "can make it possible to avoid disaster".
- Health