The effect of maternal hyperoxia on behavioral activity in growth-retarded human fetuses

Article Abstract:

Small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants are a result of severe intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). IUGR is associated with reduced variability in fetal heart rate and reductions in fetal breathing and overall body movements. These behavioral changes are thought to be due to chronic hypoxemia, oxygen deficiency. Oxygen administration to pregnant women has been a suggested treatment for this condition and has also been proposed for use in a test to discriminate SGA fetuses from those of normal stature. The effects of two hours of maternal oxygen treatment on fetal behavior were studied in 20 pregnant women, 13 of whom subsequently had SGA infants. Fetal breathing movements significantly increased during respiration with oxygen and decreased during respiration with room air, with the increase attributed to increased duration rather than increased number of movements. Fetal heart rate and overall body movements increased during administration of either oxygen or room air. In the fetuses who were born with normal stature, breathing movements, overall body movement, and heart rate did not vary significantly in response to treatment with either oxygen or room air. The results suggest that altered behavior related to IUGR is not reversible by oxygen therapy but may be a consequence of abnormal brain and nervous system development. Further, ultrasound monitoring of movement during oxygen therapy may not be able to discriminate between SGA and appropriate-for-gestational-age fetuses. Thus, oxygen therapy may not improve SGA fetal outcome. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Care and treatment, Evaluation, Maternal-fetal exchange, Oxygen therapy, Fetal growth retardation, Fetal anoxia

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Effects of low-frequency vibration on human term fetuses

Article Abstract:

Sound and vibrations can be used to assess fetal well-being, which is indicated by heart rate accelerations. Although sound can produce changes in fetal heart rate and body movement, it is not known whether these changes are the result of auditory or vibration pathways. Heart rate, breathing patterns and body movements were assessed in 13 healthy pregnancies to determine the fetuses responses to vibration. After five seconds of external vibratory stimulation, the fetuses exhibited more heart rate accelerations, increased body movement and irregular breathing movement. It is suggested that low frequency vibratory stimulation causes the fetus to move from quiet sleep into another part of the sleep cycle, rapid eye-movement sleep. Nonstress tests are a noninvasive method of assessing fetal well-being through the use of auditory and vibratory stimulation. To be certain that reactions to nonstress tests are occurring, practitioners hoping to shorten testing times can apply pure vibrations instead of the usual artificial stimulus, which tends to produce prolonged rapid heart beats. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Case studies, Measurement, Testing, Fetal heart rate, Prenatal influences, Acceleration (Physiology)

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Human fetal behavioral states after vibratory stimulation

Article Abstract:

Sound and vibration are able to wake sleeping fetuses and increase fetal heart rates. The effect of vibration on fetal behavior was studied in 14 healthy pregnant women near the end of pregnancy. The behavioral state of the fetus, sleep or wakefulness, was determined by measuring fetal heart rate, body movements and eye movements. Vibrations were applied to the mother's abdomen for five seconds. Stimulated fetuses moved from quiet sleep to active sleep in less than three minutes, compared with 23 minutes in the nonstimulated group. Application of low frequency vibration was associated with a significant change in behavior which persisted for 20 minutes. It is suggested that these behavioral changes have a physiologic basis. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Sleep-wake cycle

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