[Biological materials collection within population of pregnant women at delivery]

Little is known about biochemical mechanisms associated with the normal psychomotor development of children. Many factors of the fetal environment likely interfere with these mechanisms. A prospective cohort study is essential to explain the implications of certain disturbances of biochemical nature during gestation on the later development of the nervous system. The study that we undertook with the maternity hospital Robert Debré had several objectives. The first was to examine, on an epidemiological scale, the possible role of the monoaminergic systems and the ATPases activity during the perinatal period on the later cognitive development of the child. The second was to study the influence of environmental in utero exposure on these mechanisms and consequently on the later psychomotor performances of the child. We examine here the advantages and the specific difficulties in such an approach within a population of women in childbirth.