Fetal heart rate monitoring on the operating table immediately before delivery by cesarean section.

During the past 10 years there has been an increase in the rate of cesarean sections, and at the same time interest has increased regarding the effects of anesthesia on mother, fetus and newborn. In spite of improved procedures in anesthetics, in some cases newborns are in a depressed state after delivery by cesarean section. According to CRAWFORD [2] this is caused by drugs or biochemical factors or a mixture of both. While the barbiturates are the primary depressants of the infant from general anesthesia, this cause of depression is reduced to a minimum during regional anesthesia such as an epidural. The chief factors causing biochemical depression are maternal hyperventilation [13], position of the mother during the operation and the duration of the induction-delivery-interval. Many authors [1, 2, 8, 11, 16] have pointed out how important the mother's position is during the operation, and how this influences the state of the newborn. In this way the frequency of fetal hazards caused by the supine hypotension vena cava-compression syndrome can be reduced by placing the mother in a lateral position of 15 ° deviation to the left. The question as to the optimal duration of the induction-delivery-interval in non-emergency cesareans has been a topic of interest over the past ten years. Some authors [6, 14] are in favor of a long induction-delivery-interval since the risk of depression of the newborn due to drugs Curriculum vitae