Chapter 14 – Hormones of Pregnancy, Parturition and Lactation

The ultimate purpose of reproduction is to produce a new female or male in order to maintain the species. This process, known as procreation, requires the meeting of a competent sperm with a fertilizable ovum, the development of the resulting zygote into an individual (pregnancy) and the delivery of that individual from the uterus to the outside world (parturition). There is a window of time in which each of these events must occur for an optimal outcome so that coordination of several biological processes is required throughout each successful procreative undertaking. In mammals procreation includes the required nourishment of the offspring from the mother for a period of time following birth (lactation). However, the fundamental unit of reproductive biology is not the individual, but the triad of the mother, father, and offspring. This chapter describes the human endocrinology that is unique to the processes of pregnancy, parturition, and lactation.