Abstract

Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on December 24, 2010 at DEEPDYVE Health Affairs is published monthly by Project HOPE at 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133. Copyright © 1989 by Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation. As provided by United States copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code), no part of Health Affairs may be reproduced, displayed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or by information storage or retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the Publisher. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution Downloaded from content.healthaffairs.org by Health Affairs on December 24, 2010 at DEEPDYVE Comm entary The Perinatal Paradox: Doing More And Accomplishing Less by Roger A. Rosenblatt In 1985, 3,760,561 children were born in the United States. Of these births, 99 percent occurred in hospitals, making childbirth the most common diagnosis in American hospitals. Physicians attended 98 percent of these births, with the balance delivered by midwives. Although the average weight at birth was unchanged from the previous year, the overall proportion of infants weighing less than 2,500 grams at birth increased slightly