[Perinatal medicine in the year 2000 seen by the anesthesiology-resuscitation specialist]

Every year, 40.000 preterm babies are born in France, 10.000 of them being born before 33 weeks of gestation. They represent 1.2% of birth rate, but 50% of neonatal mortality. If IVF (in vitro fertilization) is the cause of less than 1% of all births, it is the cause of 7% of very preterm babies. Resuscitation of the very premature born infants has improved their survival rate but led to some adverse outcome. So, it is necessary to design a long term follow-up for children born from IVF, to evaluate the neonatal resuscitation and to improve treatment and care of children with developmental abnormalities.