FETAL AND MATERNAL CATECHOLAMINE LEVELS AT DELIVERY

The objective of this study was to investigate any relationships betwe en maternal and fetal catecholamine levels and clinical labour outcome s. Patients were a subgroup of healthy primigravid women who were enro led for a randomized controlled trial of labour companionship and who had blood samples for catecholamines at delivery. Norepinephrine, epin ephrine and dopamine were determined by high performance liquid chroma tography. There were no significant correlations between the maternal and fetal catecholamine levels and labour duration. Fetuses who had um bilical artery base excess < -10 had significantly higher epinephrine (p = 0.03) and dopamine (p = 0.02) levels and those who had a pH less than 7.2 had significantly higher dopamine (p = 0.02) levels. These re sults confirm a high fetal catecholamine response to hypoxia.