Prenatal Diagnosis and Prevention of Hyaline-Membrane Disease

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Abstract
A sharp increase in cortisol in amniotic liquid is a normal event after about the 34th week of gestation (as noted by Fencl and Tulchinsky elsewhere in this issue of the Journal); cord blood levels of cortisol rise around the 36th week of gestation, and higher levels of cortisol in mixed cord blood are associated with less respiratory distress in infants than are lower levels.1 , 2 The implication of the observations on cortisol levels in blood and amniotic liquid is that normal intrauterine life is characterized by a period after the 34th to the 36th week of pregnancy during which . . .