Perinatal mortality rate in the Netherlands compared to other European countries: A secondary analysis of Euro-PERISTAT data

OBJECTIVE: the poor perinatal mortality ranking of the Netherlands compared to other European countries has led to questioning the safety of primary care births, particularly those at home. Primary care births are only planned at term. We therefore examined to which extent the perinatal mortality rate at term in the Netherlands contributes to its poor ranking. DESIGN: secondary analyses using published data from the Euro-PERISTAT study.