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Role of the Fetal Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Placenta in the Initiation of Parturition

  • Chapter
Marshall’s Physiology of Reproduction

Abstract

The concept that the fetus initiates its own delivery dates from 460 BC, when Hippocrates suggested that, at the appointed hour, the fetus puts its feet on the fundus of the uterus and pushes to effect its own delivery. It was not until the tenth century that the Italian anatomist, Fabricius ab Aquapen-dente, proposed that the chief agent in the initiation of parturition was the muscular action of the uterus. In 1882, Spiegelberg re-emphasized the role of the fetus when he wrote in a German textbook of midwifery that, ‘… the reason why labour occurs at a definite time must be sought for, not in the uterus and its changes, but in the fetus. It is the maturity of the latter that gives the signal.’. In 1933, Malpas reported a series of cases of prolonged pregnancy associated with fetal anencephaly. Malpas concluded that ‘the time of the onset of labour is determined by the foetus’, and ‘the foetal adrenal, pituitary, or nervous system, perhaps in combination, are suggested as tissues possibly concerned in the actual excitation of the neuromuscular expulsive mechanisms’.

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  1. G. D. Thorburn
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  1. University of Nottingham, UK

    G. E. Lamming (Emeritus Professor of Animal Physiology) (Emeritus Professor of Animal Physiology)

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Thorburn, G.D., Liggins, G.C. (1994). Role of the Fetal Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Placenta in the Initiation of Parturition. In: Lamming, G.E. (eds) Marshall’s Physiology of Reproduction. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1286-4_10

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