Prompt access to expert care is among advice to reduce perinatal deaths in Netherlands

Ensuring access to hospital care around the clock within 15 minutes for all pregnant women is among plans launched in the Netherlands to turn around one of the worst records on perinatal mortality in Europe.

But the plans do not blame its poor record on Holland’s long tradition of home births, stating “current research shows no causal link with perinatal mortality.”

Instead the advisory group on pregnancy and birth commissioned by the government stresses better cooperation between professionals and dealing with risk factors such as deprivation.

The report, “A Good Beginning,” led by Koos van der Velden, professor in public health at Nijmegen’s Radboud …