[Incidence of birth injury in full term newborns in the last 5 years at Port Royal Maternity Hospital (author's transl)].

The incidence of birth injury in full term neonates during the last 5 years at Port Royal Maternity Hospital has been determined. Cerebral symptoms were classified in three grades; mild, moderate and severe. The study was concerned with gestational and obstetric causes of cerebral damage. Babies with malformations, metabolic disorders and infections were excluded. During the study the incidence of intra-partum deaths and still births was low, 2 to 2.5 per thousand births, and did not alter but there was a statistically significant reduction in the number of babies in the moderate and mildly affected groups. This may be due to improved obstetric practice. From 1974 to 1978 the incidence of fetal heart monitoring increased from 20 to 60 percent and since early 1977 amnioscopy has been performed in every woman admitted. The incidence of cerebral symptoms may be an important method of assessing the quality of obstetric care. Serious accidents are becoming rare and therefore the incidence of mild or moderate cerebral symptoms is likely to be a better indicator of good obstetric care. In full term infants perinatal factors are infrequently the cause of brain damage.