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The Role of Oxytocin in Parturition

1983; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/b978-0-12-153204-8.50014-1

0091-7397

Anna‐Riitta Fuchs,

Maternal and fetal healthcare

Publisher Summary Oxytocin is the most potent of all agents known to elicit uterine contractions. Careful analysis of the collective data supports the view that oxytocin plays an important role in both initiation and maintenance of human labor. The low blood levels found in early labor are compatible with physiological secretion rates and are comparable to values found during infusions of exogenous oxytocin for induction of labor. Because the threshold to oxytocin stimulation decreases at the time of parturition because of increases in tissue receptor numbers, the circulating oxytocin levels need not rise to provide the trigger for the labor contractions. The proposed dual role for oxytocin in the mechanism of labor, namely, the stimulation of myometrial contractions and the stimulation of prostaglandin release from the decidua and fetal membranes, provides a unifying concept for the divergent opinions that consider either prostaglandins or oxytocin as the activator of the parturient human uterus.