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In 18 women with uncomplicated pregnancies smoking two cigarettes significantly reduced the proportion of the time that fetal breathing movements were present.

The respiratory movements the human fetus makes in utero can be detected and used as a valuable aid in determining fetal well-being. Their presence or absence, amplitude, and duration can all provide important information. Their absence, however, does not carry a poor prognosis unless other indices of fetal status, such as the nonstress test and oxytocin-challenge contraction-stress test, are also abnormal at the same time.

1. Foetal breathing movements, electrocortical activity, arterial pressure and heart rate were recorded continuously in chronically catheterized sheep, 97-145 days pregnant.2. With increasing gestational age there was a fall in heart rate of 0.67 beats/day and a rise in arterial pressure of 0.46 mmHg/day.3. Hypoxaemia in the foetus was induced by allowing the ewe to breathe low oxygen mixtures, 9% O(2) with 3% CO(2) in N(2). In the younger foetuses there was an initial rise in heart rate whereas in the older foetuses there was a fall. After the end of hypoxia there was a persistent tachycardia in both groups. In the older foetuses there was a rise of arterial pressure.4. Two vagotomized older foetuses showed cardiovascular responses similar to those of the younger foetuses.5. Foetal breathing movements were abolished by hypoxaemia in twenty-two of twenty-five experiments. In the three exceptional experiments there was a small rise in P(a, CO2).6. The proportion of time occupied by low voltage electrocortical activity in the foetus was reduced by hypoxaemia.7. Hypercapnia was induced by giving the ewe 4-6% CO(2) with 18% O(2) in N(2) to breathe. After an initial slight fall the foetal heart rate increased and there was a small rise in foetal arterial pressure.8. The proportion of time occupied by low voltage electrocortical activity and breathing movements was increased by hypercapnia.9. Maternal hyperoxia, induced by giving 50% O(2) in N(2), did not significantly increase foetal breathing movements unless the ewe was in labour. In labour the foetuses had lower P(a, O2) values initially and a reduced incidence of foetal breathing, both of which were increased by maternal hyperoxia.

1 Small doses of pentobarbitone (4 mg/kg i.v.) administered to sheep in the last third of pregancy had little overt effect on the mothers. In the foetus they caused arrest of breathing movements, an alteration in the character of the electrocorticogram and cardiovascular changes which varied with gestational age. 2 In contrast, relatively large doses of pethidine (100-200 mg) admininstered to the mother had no consistent effect on normal foetal breathing movements, though they abolished the foetal response to hypercapnia. 3 The results are discussed in relation to feotal sleep state.

An ultrasonic technique for detecting fetal breathing in utero has been developed using chronic fetal lamb preparations, and has been used successfully in pregnant women.