Oxygen administration during labor

Central arterial hemodynamics in small‐for‐gestational‐age fetuses before and during maternal hyperoxygenation: a Doppler velocimetric study with particular attention to the aortic isthmus

“…Maternal hyperoxia usually lasted for 30-45 min and during these periods we could not demonstrate any hemodynamic changes that suggested adverse effects related to oxygen administration. Our findings are in accordance with those of others who have not demonstrated any deleterious effects on the fetus during maternal administration of 100% oxygen for periods of about 60-70 min 33,34 .…”

Circulatory responses to maternal hyperoxaemia and hypoxaemia assessed non‐invasively in fetal sheep at 0.3–0.5 gestation in acute experiments

“…In humans, treatment with hyperoxygenation has been attempted in pregnancies where the fetus had a low pO 2 or was suspected of having hypoxaemia 6 during pregnancy or during labour 7 . It is not known whether such treatment improves outcome, or causes harm.…”

The composition of foetal and maternal blood during parturition in the ewe

“…In the past decade some doubt has been cast on this assumption, particularly since the introduction of the technique for blood sampling from the human foetal scalp (Saling, 1962). Its widespread application has indicated that in the human foetus at least, anoxia and acidosis in normal labour is comparatively rare (Bretscher & Saling, 1967; Gare, Shime, Paul & Hoskins, 1969) and that the major changes occur during delivery and after birth (Koch & Wendel 1968). However, scalp samples can only be obtained after presentation of the head and rupture of the foetal membranes; the values obtained, therefore, are not necessarily representative of normal conditions in utero during late gestation.…”