The importance of mentoring in perinatal medicine

Why is mentoring so important? asks Rudi Ansbacher of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ann Arbor, in a 1999 guest editorial. "Because", he answers, "with the innumerable complexities we all face in our daily living, interpersonal relationships become a foundation upon which we build our futures". After reporting, with unabashed warmth and pleasure, his own mentor program over the past 20 years at the University of Michigan, first for residents and later also for fellows, he defined its significance as "molding those who will fill our shoes and become leaders in the future" (3). His editorial prompted me to consider the role that mentoring plays in our discipline. In European universities, at least, structured mentoring is relatively new or weakly established. What is mentoring ? Does it - where it exists - achieve its aims ? Could perinatal medicine benefit from it ?.