ABSTRACT
In the United States, many hospital-based transport services were first implemented to bring newborn infants to tertiary care. Problems with early transport incubators, as well as increasing recognition that the mother was the ideal incubator, encouraged the development of transport programs to bring the gravid woman to specialized obstetric and neonatal facilities prior to delivery. It was the availability of rapid and safe aeromedical transportation, surmounting the problems of time and distance, which promoted the development of regional perinatal centers to provide care to those mothers and neonates at increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Transport of the high risk gravid patient, with delivery of the newborn at a tertiary care facility, has probably resulted in increased maternal and fetal survival, decreased short and longterm morbidity, and decreased hospitalization costs for infants transported in utero.
