[Acquired--accepted--adopted? On the status of neonatology in West Germany]

The worldwide reduction in infant mortality and low birthweight lethality has also been observed in the Federal Republic of Germany during the past two decades. In many countries, neonatology has emerged as a scientifically active subspecialty of pediatrics. Its main characteristic is an understanding of partially mature function and perinatal adaptation. In West Germany, however, education programs for neonatologists have not been inaugurated and neonatology has been identified with pediatric intensive care. Sophisticated neonatal transport systems, expensive special care units, and highly aggressive therapeutic approaches have resulted. Neither perinatal centers for high-risk deliveries nor regionalization programs for intrauterine transport to the neonatal special care unit have been created. Neonatology may drift towards obstetrics if established pediatrics continues to ignore educational, organizational and manpower needs of neonatal care.