Beginnings of Perinatal Medicine

Viewed from a scientific historical angle, perinatal medicine is a still young special interdisciplinary field of medicine which came into being during the middle of the 20th century. Thanks to the scientific and medical activities of one of the editors of this volume, Professor Erich Saling, who is also called The Father of Perinatal Medicine, essential impulses and innovations were achieved. With the introduction of fetal blood analysis he made it possible to gain access to the unborn infant, which today is regarded as a milestone at the beginning of Perinatal Medicine. For the first time, human medicine entered the intrauterine space.

With the exception of the collection of articles by Rooth and Saugstad published in 1985, in the history of perinatal medicine there only exist single papers of various sub-disciplines (for example fetal surveillance sub partu, ultrasonography) either as an article in a magazine, or as a chapter in an appropriate text book. Up to now there has been no publication that presents in an integrative way the history of the still young speciality. The main emphasis will be on the time period up to the early 70s (that means the early stages of Perinatal Medicine), however, both scientific precursors and later developments are mentioned shortly, when opportune.

The authors of this volume are qualified specialists and some of them have decades of experience in the field they describe.