Maintenance of Pregnancy and Parturition

Title: Maintenance of Pregnancy and Parturition
Creator: Phung, Jason; Paul, Jonathan; Smith, Roger
Relation: Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Endocrinology p. 169-187
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814823-5.00013-1
Publisher: Elsevier
Resource Type: book chapter
Date: 2020
Description: The establishment and maintenance of pregnancy rely on a number of hormones, including progesterone and human chorionic gonadotrophin. Throughout gestation, pregnancy is under a progesterone block, which maintains uterine quiescence to permit fetal growth and maturation. As a woman approaches term, there is a functional progesterone withdrawal and functional estrogen activation that upregulate contraction-associated proteins. These hormonal changes appear to coincide with inflammatory changes that further encourage the transformation of the uterus from a resting to a contractile phenotype. During parturition, the release of oxytocin and prostaglandins enhances contractions, and increasing gap junctions allows the synchronization of myocyte activity and rhythmic contractions of the whole uterus. A number of factors can initiate preterm labor, including infection, sterile inflammation, and blood and cellular senescence.
Subject: cervix; contractions; estrogen; inflammation; labor; parturition
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1439213
Identifier: uon:40856
Identifier: ISBN:9780128148235
Language: eng