Physiology of the prenatal oxygen supply
The prenatal oxygen supply gets optimized by three factors:
All three factors are important for an efficient gas exchange and play a role in the different compartments of the maternal and infant blood. In the following diagram the O2 binding curves of the maternal and fetal blood at the time of birth are shown for the mean pH value in the placenta. In order to take into account the various hemoglobin concentrations of mother and fetus (12g/% and 18g/%, respectively), not the O2 saturation is displayed on the ordinate but rather the O2 concentration.