“France has experienced a marked decline for more than ten years compared to its European neighbors. » In September, the Senate recently published a panel of recommendations concerning perinatal health – health of the mother and child from pregnancy to the child’s first birthday – in France.
Objective: to provide a response commensurate with the current fragility of perinatal health in France. A precarious situation which weighs on the health of mothers and newborns in France.
High infant mortality
The information mission on the future of perinatal health and its territorial organization starts from an alarming observation, which initiated its action : “the absence of improvement, or even the deterioration of indicators over the past ten years, places France now in 21st and 22nd European ranks in terms of spontaneous stillbirth and infant mortalitywith on this second indicator a rate of 4.0 per 1,000 live births in 2023.”
After six months of pregnancy in France, one baby in a hundred is born lifeless or dies during its first year of life.
55,000 children are born prematurely in France each year, or 7% of births, which represent 75% of neonatal mortality and 50% of disabilities of perinatal origin.
The care of these premature newborns has improved but not quickly enough, regrets the information mission, below the levels reached in the countries of northern Europe.
As for mothers, while deaths remain rare (around 90 per year), physical or psychological complications remain frequent. Postpartum hemorrhages alone account for 10% of deliveries.
A healthcare system that is not up to par
Among the causes identified, we find risk factors specific to the mother and her social situation:
- Later gestational age;
- Obesity and gestational diabetes (15% of pregnant women);
- Poor health;
- Social precarity and vulnerability.
But the causes are also to be found in the healthcare system:
- Insufficient provision of neonatal resuscitation care (less systematic management of extremely premature babies);
- Failure to organize care (difficulties in ensuring continuity of care and stable complete teams);
- Suboptimal care (2 times higher risk of inadequate management of postpartum hemorrhage).
Degraded mental health
The report also points out mental health of young parents which is deteriorating. Thus 70% of mothers present baby blues symptoms In the days following childbirth, 1 in 5 mothers and 1 in 10 fathers suffer from postpartum depression. Suicides, 15 per year, remain the leading cause of maternal deaths.
Among the causes, one in five women say they are not satisfied with the information communicated about the postpartum period and have not benefited from postnatal follow-up. The report particularly highlights the lack of quality information, leaving parents helpless when it comes to caring for their newborn.
The fact-finding mission makes 16 recommendations to, in particular, put an end to territorial disparities, guarantee the number of medical staff, improve the care of the mental health of young parents, etc.
In summary, “it recommends a reorganization of the healthcare offering ensuring increased safety of deliveries and, at the same time, a strengthening of close monitoring during pregnancy and after birth”summarizes the Senate website.
