The mechanisms that instigate human parturition have not been completely understood, though hypotheses such as 'functional progesterone withdrawal' and inflammatory signaling have been proposed. Researchers including our group have previously identified panels of genes which were differentially expressed between placentas obtained after spontaneous birth and those after elective cesarean delivery. However, such findings obtained after birth could only reflects the late changes in parturition. Similar findings in other gestational tissues, such as fetal membranes, amniotic fluids, myometrial biopsies are available, but these sample types cannot be readily collected until delivery.

Thus, we propose to explore biomarkers in maternal blood with a view to developing any useful analytes for predicting labor.