In 1978, the Surgeon General established objectives to be met by 1990 for maternal and child health. Using statistical data, this report by the Children's Defense Fund evaluates the extent to which those objectives have been met. In particular, data gathered in this report show: (1) the nation failed to meet goals for increasing prenatal care, and decreasing low birthweight, postneonatal mortality, and infant mortality, and the nation actually regressed on two of these measures; (2) the nation met goals for lessening the incidence of neonatal mortality, and the measures used to do so are based mainly on expensive, sophisticated medical technology; (3) only 3 states met goals for decreasing the incidence of low-birthweight births, 12 states will not meet these goals before 2035, and 23 states are moving in the opposite direction or making no improvement; (4) 27 states met the goal of decreasing infant mortality, but Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and the District of Colombia will not meet 1990 goals until at least 1995; other states will not meet the goals until 2004. (Includes 26 tables of statistics on child and maternal health.) (JW)