Abstract
Stagnation of perinatal mortality in the Czech republic since 2000 has been the result of two opposite process. On one side it is the continuous increase of newborns of low birth weight as a result of not only biological but also demographic and socio-economic risk factors, which create unfavorable envirement for provision of perinatal care.
On the other side it is the improved professional care observed in two areas (prenatal diagnosis of congenital malformations and intensive care in newborns of extremely low birth weight). During 2003-2004 we were still able to observe odds of improvement of professional care against the deteriorating conditions which led to further decrease of perinatal mortality by 0.27%0 on average.
However, there is a danger that negative factors will prevail in the near future, because reserves for the further improvement of professional care are exhausted and analyzed unfavorable factors are continuously on the rise. This could lead to an increase of the curently low perinata