Cardiovascular rhythmometry during pregnancy and early extrauterine life

The broad rhythmic structure of blood pressure and heart rate in clinically healthy newborns and in their mothers before and after delivery is investigated. A room-restricted automatic monitor manufactured by Nippon Colin is used to measure, oscillometrically, the systolic, mean arterial, and diastolic blood pressure and the heart rate of pregnant women before and after delivery. A neonatal instrument also manufactured by Nippon Colin is used to monitor newborns. Each data series is plotted as a function of time for identification of outliers values outside the range of the mean ±3 standard deviations. Each series is analyzed by a single cosinor using all data (raw data series) and after elimination of outliers (edited data series). The results of this study are further compared to results from other collaborative international studies of pregnant women and newborns