Pregnancy maternal adaptation

To appreciate the role of laboratory tests in pregnancy health care, it is necessary to understand fundamental topics, such as conception, embryo development, fetal growth, the role of the placenta, the importance and composition of amniotic fluid, maternal adaptation to pregnancy, and functional maturation of the fetus. 

In two conditions, namely when the functional capacity of the thyroid gland is unpaired (i.e. autoimmune thyroid disease) or during pregnancy in healthy women residing in iodine-deficient areas, the maternal thyroid gland cannot easily adapt to the increased hormonal requirements, and variable degrees of maternal thyroid failure (MTF) may occur over the course of gestation. 

Fig. P-67. Protein accumulation in the fetus during pregnancy. (Adapted by the authors from Toverud, K. U., et a/ Maternal Nutrition and Child Health, An Interpretive Review, National Academy of Sciences, 1950, p. 36, Fig. 3)...

Maintenance of pregnancy, i.e. maternal tolerance to foreign tissue of the fetus, calls for crucial immunological adaptations, which also involve the metabolism of sialic acid. Endocrinologically controlled changes in sialic acid content of the cervical mucus of the uterus during the menstrual cycle are of... 

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