THe relationship between myometrial activity and sleep state and breathing in fetal sheep throughout the last third of gestation

Abstract

Between 106 and 144 days' gestation, periods of uterine electromyographic (EMG) activity and associated increases in uterine tone (contractures) were accompanied by a change in fetal ocular activity in 294 (63%) of 467 cases. In 260 (88.4%) of the changes, there was a switch fromm the active to nonactive state. The incidence of this change was significantly greater (p < 0.01) than the switch from the nonactive to the active state. The fetal electrocorticogram changed state in 34 (74%) of 46 contractures, the change being from low-amplitude to high-amplitude activity in 28 (82%) of the cases. This difference was significant (p < 0.01). Fetal breathing movements (FBM), as indicated by activity of the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle, changed in 134 (55%) of 243 contractures, the change being from active to the quiescent state in 115 (85%) of contractures. Diaphragmatic activity changed in 11 (61%) of 183 contractures, with a change from activity to quiescence occurring in 100 instances (90%). Changes in tracheal pressure were associated with an altered state of FBM in 190 (61%) of 314 contractures, and the change was from the presence of FBM to absence of them in 178 (94%) of the changes. In all three of these indicators of FBM, the change from breathing activity to quiescence was statistically significant (p < 0.01).