Effects of induction of labor on the neurophysiologic functioning of newborn infants.

ABSTRACT

Neurophysiologic responses of newborn infants delivered after normal onset of labor are compared with those of newborn infants whose mothers had labor induced with oxytocin or prostaglandin F2 alpha. No differences in brain activity or heart rate were detected between groups in terms of frequency of response to auditory, visual, tactile, or olfactory stimulation. Significant differences were found for resting brain activity defined in terms of autoregressive spectral estimates or coefficients. The largest differences were between the groups with normal onset of labor and prostaglandin F2 alpha.