Quel avenir pour la pédiatrie en maternité ?

The first part of this work covers regulatory texts on paediatrics in maternity hospitals, the operational areas of postnatal wards and delivery rooms, as well as paediatrics within the framework of prenatal diagnosis and foetal medicine. The second part describes the medical references of this area of activity, according to child and parent needs (on somatic, psycho-emotional and educational levels) and within medical and psychosocial contexts. Finally, this work examines the difficulties of paediatric practice in maternity hospitals, which are mostly dependent on an inadequate medical staff. Early discharges of term newborns because of the insufficient capacity of maternity wards are not regularly followed-up by appropriate aftercare at home. Some recommendations are proposed to limit the adverse effects of early postpartum discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]