Why all placentas should be examined by a pathologist in 1990.

Placental pathology is rarely a part of the training for either obstetrician or pathologist. As a result there has been confusion regarding the potential benefits of routine placental examination. These benefits include clarification of the causes of many adverse pregnancy outcomes, improvement of the risk assessment for future pregnancies, and ascertainment of newborn risk for long-term neurodevelopment sequelae. Information on placental abnormalities may reveal the presence of chronic fetal insults and allow their differentiation from acute (peripartum) stresses. Current methods of risk assessment fail to identify the majority of pregnancies that end in prematurity, stillbirth, growth retardation, or fetal distress. We suggest that placental pathology should be a routine component of obstetric-neonatal care.