Oxytocin Administration Prior Planned Caesarean Section

• Umbilical cord blood copeptin levels[ Time Frame: blood sample within 30 minutes after birth ]
  copeptin levels in pmol/l
• Postnatal neonatal weight change[ Time Frame: postnatal day 1-4 ]
  Maximum neonatal weight change in percent of birth weight
• Breastfeeding status[ Time Frame: 1 year ]
  Percentage of children who are not, partially or full breastfed

Spontaneous vaginal delivery of a healthy infant provokes a unique surge in stress hormone concentrations (e.g. AVP (arginine vasopressin) /copeptin) incommensurable with child or adult levels measured in any other situation. In contrast, infants delivered by primary caesarean section without preceding labour have low stress hormone concentrations at birth unless other stressors are present, including chorioamnionitis or intrauterine growth restriction. Infants delivered by caesarean section after a trial of labour show copeptin concentrations between these two extremes. Objectives:1) To reduce neonatal respiratory morbidity and admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and increase bonding and breastfeeding by triggering uterine contractions prior to planned caesarean delivery. 2) To collect prospectively weight data of infants in the first 6 months of life to validate and expand our online neonatal weight calculator. Study design: Open label; randomised, placebo controlled trail Intervention: Oxytocin challenge test (OCT): Infusion of oxytocin 5 IU/500 ml Ringer® lactate at a rate of 12 ml/h and doubled every 10 min until three uterine contractions per 10-min interval are induced, at which point it will be stopped. Primary endpoint: - Incidence of neonatal respiratory morbidity Secondary endpoints: - Umbilical cord blood copeptin levels - Postnatal neonatal weight change - Breastfeeding status

• Other: Oxytocin challenge test (OCT)
  Infusion of oxytocin 5 IU/500 ml Ringer® lactate at a rate of 12 ml/h and doubled every 10 min until three uterine contractions per 10-min interval are induced, at which point it will be stopped.

• Experimental: OCT-group
  Oxytocin challenge test: Oxytocin 5 IU/500 ml Ringer® lactate will be infused at a rate of 12 ml/h and doubled every 10 min until it induced three uterine contractions per 10-min interval at which point it will stopped.
• No Intervention: Control
  standard procedure before planned caesarean section