Why the study?
How do maternal plasma cortisol levels change during labour and are they affected by oxytocin or epidural analgesia in primiparous women?
How do maternal plasma cortisol levels change during labour and are they affected by oxytocin or epidural analgesia in primiparous women?
Maternal cortisol levels rise during labour, but this increase is blunted by epidural analgesia and slightly lower in those requiring oxytocin.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Should not alter epidural use in labour; leaves open whether blunted cortisol rise affects maternal outcomes.
SummaryMaternal plasma Cortisol levels in 62 primiparous women rose during labour and remained high for 20 minutes after delivery. Umbilical cord Cortisol levels were substantially lower than maternal levels. The maternal Cortisol level was slightly lower in those who required oxytocin. This relationship between maternal Cortisol levels and the use of oxytocin was not affected by the use of epidural analgesia. The mean maternal Cortisol level rose to a lesser extent in the women who had epidural analgesia than in those who did not.
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Haddad et al. (1986) studied this question.
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