The promise of regional perinatal care as a national strategy for improved maternal and infant care.

The strategy or regional planning has been the subject of much attention in recent years. In the history of the delivery system for perinatal care the attempt to broadcast the benefits of modern perinatal medicine to entire regions to every pregnant woman and to every hospital and provider within each region is a startling development. The enthusiasm for regional perinatal care of mothers and infants. Another good feature about regional perinatal care--and 1 that is largely unappreciated-is its melding of the private sector with the public sector in a common mission. Regional networks of perinatal care can provide a substructure to which multiple programs that provide an array of services to mothers and infants can be affixed. The usefulness of the regional information system in identifying newborns who are at high risk of serious handicaps is impressive. Perhaps the best feature of regional perinatal care is its unitary focus on the individual patient assessing her needs and providing interventions to reduce the risk of pregnancy to mother and infant. Regional perinatal care offers the best opportunity to begin to structure an organization of maternal and infant care that will initiate the complex interplay of social medical and environmental factors that determine the outcomes of pregnancy and early life and that will start to close the gap between the haves and the have nots.