Objectives

The Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies (FAOPS) is a federation of national societies of perinatal and neonatal medicine in the geographical region of Asia and Oceania. It was established in 1980 with the objectives to
(1) Promote the science and art of perinatology,
(2) Promote maternal, fetal and neonatal welfare,
(3) Maintain liaison and promote co-operation and goodwill with other perinatal organisations,
(4) To provide expert advice to governmental and other bodies pertaining to perinatology, and
(5) To promote research and training in perinatology.

Membership

In order to achieve its aims, FAOPS encourages the formation of broadly based national perinatal societies with memberships drawn from nursing, midwifery and basic science, in addition to both paediatrics and obstetrics. Currently, the membership of FAOPS, which is open to the national societies of perinatology established in the geographical region of Asia and Oceania, include 14 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. In addition, Egypt, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Sri Lanka, which have yet to form their perinatal societies, have joined FAOPS as Associate Members.

Congress

The principal activity of FAOPS has been to organise a Perinatal Congress within the Asia and Oceania region once every two years. To date the following have been given the responsibility of hosting a FAPOS Congress: Singapore (1980); Auckland, Newt has Zealand (1982); Calcutta, India (1984); Tokyo, Japan (1986); Bali, Indonesia (1988); Perth, Australia (1990); Bangkok, Thailand (1992); Taipei, Taiwan (1994); Singapore (1996); Seoul, Korea (1998); Manila, Philippines (2000); Christchurch, New Zealand (2002); and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2004).

Workshop

In addition to the Congress held every two years, FAOPS has been holding Perinatal Workshops in between the congress years in countries within the Asia and Oceania region. One aim is to help increase the interest of health professionals in these countries in perinatal-neonatal medicine, with the objective of improving their maternal, fetal and infant health care delivery, education and research. Another aim is to encourage co-operation among their obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives, neonatal nurses, and other health professionals involved in perinatal-neonatal care.
The first FAOPS Perinatal Workshop was held in the Manila, Philippines (1993), the second in Lahore, Pakistan (1995), and the third in Kathmandu, Nepal (1997). With FAOPS currently divided into three regions, three Workshops were held in 1999: Colombo, Sri Lanka (Western Region), Batam, Indonesia (Central Region), and Hong Kong (Eastern Region). The three Workshops proposed for 2001 are Bangladesh, Indonesia and Mongolia, for the respective regions.

Administration

The General Assembly comprises delegates of national societies (between 1 and 4 delegates depending on size of national society) and members of the Council. Council Members, comprises executives of the Federation and one representative from each of the national societies. The Council has the authority for the overall management of the business, scientific and financial affairs of FAOPS. FAOPS raises its finance from annual subscriptions by national societies,
which pay to FAOPS a yearly contribution of US$1 per member of each national society.
The national society hosting a FAOPS Congress pays 10% of the registration fee collected from the delegates to FAOPS.