[Birth-related stress and postpartum adaptation of newborn infants after cesarean section].

The mechanisms of fetal and newborn adaptation to extrauterine life after normal and abdominal delivery were under study. Laboratory and instrumental methods were employed to examine the status of the intrauterine fetus and the clinical picture of the newborn adaptation in the early neonatal period: radioimmunoassays of dopamine, noradrenaline, adrenaline were carried out in fetuses and newborns after normal delivery and after cesarean section performed before and in labor. The results evidence that the adaptation shifts develop later in the newborns after cesarean section performed before labor than in those born spontaneously or by cesarean section that was performed in labor. The same tendency can be traced in the changes developing in the sympathoadrenal system. This result brings the authors to a conclusion that planned cesarean section should be performed after the onset of labor, if possible.