Welcome to The Yale Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (Yale CPPEE)

The Yale Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (PEU) was founded in 1979 by then Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, Robert Berliner, to support research in this area being conducted by the departments of Epidemiology and Public Health, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics (especially Neonatology). The founding Director was Professor Michael B. Bracken. The mission of the PEU was stated in the preface to the 1984 textbook Perinatal Epidemiology (MB Bracken Ed., Oxford University Press) which first described this area of scholarship:

         “It has long been recognized that events during pregnancy influence the health and well-being of the newborn. This recognition, and the obvious need to provide integrated care to both mother and baby, has led to the establishment of perinatology as the medical specialty that bridges the gap between the obstetrician’s concern for the pregnant woman and the care of her newborn by a pediatrician. Only recently have we begun to understand that events occurring long before pregnancy, sometimes inter-generationally, can affect our reproductive capabilities. We also now know that vicissitudes in our own uterine existence may profoundly influence the rest of our lives both physically and behaviorally. Population based studies of these phenomena fall within the domain of perinatal epidemiology, which has evolved into a major subspecialty of epidemiology and an important component of perinatal medicine.”