Human perinatal nephrology is a very diverse field in medicine, shared—among others—between obstetricians, neonatologists and nephrologists. Extremely low birth weight infants, babies with growth restriction, and specific subgroups (like asphyxia, cardiac bypass) of term neonates in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are predisposed to acute kidney injury (AKI) and are prone to develop progressive renal failure at early age.

Cases with congenital malformations of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) are another specific group.

A holistic, multidisciplinary approach is needed to assess the degree and impact of kidney impairment in these vulnerable infants.

This is because there is a wealth on observations that fetal and neonatal renal development is one of the main drivers of short and long-term outcome (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, DOHaD).

Furthermore, the variability in renal development and function should make us explore the impact of preventive or curative interventions, with disrupted nephrogenesis as key mechanism.

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