Introduction

The ultimate success of a system of care for women and children that is designed to safeguard the health of women during pregnancy, improve birth outcomes, and ensure the healthy development of young children is critically dependent on its comprehensiveness. To meet its goals at a societal level, it must encompass women of childbearing age and their children at all socioeconomic levels, and it must address the full range of their health concerns and determinants.

The preceding chapters of this book have addressed successes and limitations of prenatal care in the United States. This chapter will present an example of a European system of prenatal care, specifically the French system, which strives to meet this goal of comprehensiveness. In France, prenatal care is generally linked to postpartum care and pediatric services for young children, and will therefore be discussed here under the umbrella of “perinatal” rather than “prenatal” care.

Western European countries are inclined to present their public health policies as a model, based on their commitment to the health of pregnant women and infants. It is useful to ask whether the achievements of these policies justify this characterization. This chapter attempts to answer this question by describing the French system, and reviewing its accomplishments as well as its limitations. In doing so, we hope to present a useful comparison to the American system.