Obstetrics in Cuba, 1974.

In the past 17 years, Cuba has established a system of governmental medical care, and undergraduate and graduate medical education have also been revised and expanded. Special attention has been directed to maternal and pediatric care, but no description of this has been published outside Cuba. Standards of care have been formulated by national committees, with emphasis placed on the training of specialists in obstetrics and neonatology. Prenatal care and identification of high-risk patients has produced an institutional delivery rate of over 97% with much antenatal hospitalization and referral of high-risk gravidas to tertiary care facilities. New laws providing benefits for working women encourage prenatal care, rest, and breastfeeding. In 1974 the maternal mortality rate was 55.6 per 100,000 live births, and perinatal mortality was 28.5 per 1000 live births.