[Significance of intrapartum hypoxia for cerebral long-term morbidity]

Congenital brain damage is not equivalent with birth associated brain damage. The majority of congenital brain lesions are prenatal in origin. There is a smooth transition of hypoxemia and acidemia in fetal blood related to the physiological birth stress and fetal hypoxia resulting in tissue damage. Only severe forms of hypoxia have an increased risk for brain lesions. Brain damage caused by birth hypoxia usually result in spastic cerebral palsy. Even today in the majority of cerebral palsy cases the actual cause remains unclear. Increased attention should be directed towards the differentiation between disturbances developing in late pregnancy and primary intrapartal hypoxia.