[Prenatal health in 2002-2003. Survey of medical practice. Results from the Audipog sentinel network].

Perinatal health survey has been ensured for 10 years by the AUDIPOG Sentinel Network (AUDIPOG, Association of Users of Computerized Files in Perinatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology). It was created, in 1994, by a group of birth specialists having the same concern for a common system of perinatal health survey and assessment of medical practices. Every year, the network includes about 100 voluntary maternity units pooling data about pregnant women and their newborns. To date, the AUDIPOG database comprises 180,000 births gathered between 1994 and 2003, including 78,287 births for the 2002 and 2003 period. The use of a standardization method of the rates makes it possible to provide valid estimations at the national level. This report presents the perinatal health indicators in 2002-2003 and confirms a very alarming situation: the rate of preterm births has not decreased since 1999 (7.1% of births) and high prematurity (< 33 weeks of gestation) affects 1.6% of newborns. Only 65% of high premature infants are born in care level III maternity units, while the figure of 80% has been reached as soon as 1999 and has not stopped to decrease since. The rate of cesarean section keeps on increasing, reaching 18.7% including 9.6% before the beginning of labour. The AUDIPOG network constitutes a continuous, and in real time, perinatal health survey and also a tool to assess medical practices. Members of the Audipog network can log in to the common data base, using the AUDIPOG website (http://audipog.inserm.fr), in order to find answers to their own questionnings and to compare their practices with the external reference formed by the network: such an access represents an innovating method of self-assessment of medical practices and quality control.