Earlier results have shown that some infants born by elective Caesarean section start to sweat in a warm environment while others do not, and that sweating can be inhibited by feeding cold glucose. To determine whether these earlier observations, indicating a difference in postnatal temperature adaptation, could be reproduced in vaginally born infants, we measured [...]

During normal pregnancy total body water increases by 6 to 8 liters, 4 to 6 liters of which are extracellular, of which at least 2 to 3 liters are interstitial. At some stage in pregnancy 8 out of 10 women have demonstrable clinical edema. There is also cumulative retention of about 950 mmol of sodium [...]

OBJECTIVE--To determine whether the fall in plasma osmolality in normal human pregnancy resulted in cellular overhydration. DESIGN--The changes in erythrocyte hydration, potassium and total osmoles in response to a decrease in osmolality in vitro and associated with the fall in plasma osmolality in normal pregnancy were determined. SUBJECTS--Fifty-one women were studied serially during pregnancy and [...]