Abstract
Pregnancy, labor and delivery are potentially stressful states for the mother and fetus. Therefore, various researchers have measured β-endorphin in the peripheral plasma of women (a) during pregnancy, in labor, and after delivery; (b) in labor without and with epidural anesthesia; and (c) prior to and after induction of general or regional anesthesia for cesarian section. There have been also determinations of β-endorphin in the umbilical arterial and venous blood of newborns following spontaneous or operative vaginal and abdominal delivery, without and with fetal distress. It is the objective of this paper to summarize the data of other groups and to discuss our own measurements of maternal and neonatal β-endorphin in the light of other publications.
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Distler, W. (1990). Human Plasma β-Endorphin Levels in Pregnant Women and in Newborns. In: Distler, W., Beck, L. (eds) Endorphins in Reproduction and Stress. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75797-6_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-75797-6_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-52736-7
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