Perinatal mortality rate at a community hospital, 1956 to 1975

This paper is a review of the perinatal mortality rate and its components stillbirths and neonatal deaths, for the years 1956 through 1975 at Memorial General Hospital, Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is an attempt to assess major medical factors, such as specialization and cesarean section, and weigh their effect on these indices of the quality of perinatal medical care. Other factors considered in the analysis were: ages of mothers, parity, birth weights, and socioeconomic, educational, and motivational factors. The apparent impact of direct medical care factors is considerably less than would be expected.