Obstetric History and the Heart-rate Response of Newborns to Sound

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Abstract
Two groups of clinically normal newborns, differing in the number of non-optimal factors in their obstetric history, were compared by measuring heart-rate [HR] response to a series of auditory stimuli. There was a significant difference between the groups in the direction of the average HR response. The high risk group showed more HR acceleration and less deceleration compared with the low-risk group. The HR responses were significantly related to the number of non-optimal obstetric conditions and to parity, but not to the maternal pre-delivery medication score. The greater the risk at birth, the less was the deceleration; the greater the maternal parity, the less did acceleration occur in response to auditory stimulation. There was no significant difference between the high-risk and low-risk groups in HR response trends over trials. Both groups showed reliable diminution of deceleration HR response over trials.