Jan Nijhuis | Head of the department of obstetrics & gynaecology Maastricht UMC+

‘The conference participants come across each other everywhere’

Jan Nijhuis is a gynaecologist-perinatologist and head of the department of obstetrics & gynaecology at the Maastricht UMC+. From 22 to 25 June 2016, Prof. Nijhuis will be President of the biannual European Congress (ECPM) of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine (EAPM) in Maastricht. The conference is intended for obstetric-oriented gynaecologists (obstetricians), paediatrician-neonatologists, obstetricians and researchers in the field of perinatology. The number of participants will be between 1,700 and 2,000. “Perinatology is the care of the pregnant woman and her child; thus, it includes care during pregnancy, at birth and during the first weeks of life of the newborn. Every two years, the European experts in this field come together. After Oslo, Prague, Istanbul, Granada, Paris and Florence, I thought it high time to add Maastricht to this list of beautiful cities. The city is not that big, so the conference participants come across each other everywhere. Due to the location of Maastricht, we are setting up the organisation as ‘Euroregional’: our neighbours, Germany and Belgium, are joining us. And then we have another few tricks up our sleeve: As a city, we have the beautiful MECC convention centre and, as a country, we have home births. The home birth is something unique in the Western world. All in all, it took years before this plan became a beautiful reality. The competition was huge. But, in the end, we won in the last round from Moscow and EAPM Maastricht is a fact.”