Perinatal health—a European view: In November 2003 an important Supplement was distributed along with the EJOGRB (Vol 111, Issue 1). Its title was “Indicators to Monitor and Evaluate Perinatal Health in Europe: results from the PERISTAT project”. PERISTAT, which stands for Perinatal Statistics, is part of the European Commission’s Health Monitoring Programme and the project was funded by the European Union (EU). Fifteen European countries participated, and the co-ordinators were Jennifer Zeitlin, Katherine Wildman and Gerard Breart of the Epidemiological Research Unit on Perinatal and Women’s Health, INSERM 4149, Paris. The aim was to recommend a set of indicators for monitoring perinatal health and health care on a European level. Europe faces common challenges in perinatal health—e.g. to maximise safety for mothers, reduce social inequalities in health and access to care, and to use limited resources efficiently—but approaches to perinatal health care differ greatly across the continent. Inadequate information is available about morbidity among mothers. Severe life-threatening morbidity is rare but significant maternal health conditions are related to pregnancy and the post partum period. Depression is common and urinary and faecal incontinence may result from perineal trauma during childbirth.