The plasma catecholamine surge at birth: its role in determining variations in brain function.

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Birth is a unique process. Our long term goal is to better understand the physiology of birth - in particular, to understand how regulatory mechanisms protect the brain during birth. During a normal birth, the newborn experiences a decrease in oxygen (hypoxia) with each contraction of the mother's uterus. In addition there is a fall in the newborn's blood oxygen during 2nd stage labor compared to 1st. However little is known about mechanisms that might protect the newborn brain from hypoxia during normal birth or during more severe hypoxia such as in a very long labor.