Perinatal Physiology

Living Nature, not dull Art Shall plan my ways and rule my heart -Cardinal Newman Nature and Art 1868 One of the ineluctable consequences of growth in any field of science is that subjects of inquiry once established tend to give birth to subsubjects and that the subsubjects once established will in time undergo further mitotic division. Not so many years ago, problems surrounding the ietus and newly born infant lay in a realm almost to be described as a "no-man's land." Obstetricians properly gave major consideration to understanding and learning about processes and disorders concerned with maternal health and safety. The welfare of the infant was regarded as of secondary importance. Pediatricians on their part hesitated to invade the nursery, a sanctum regarded as belonging to the domain of the accoucheur. And the pathologist, enveloped in the mysteries of life and death in the adult, found scant tim~ for the neonate and the placenta.