Forget racing, how about birthing at altitude?

I'm planning on having my baby in a cute little mountain resort town nearby, where we did a sprint triathlon last summer. I picked it based on all the good things I'd heard about the doctor and hospital there.

It's at 7000ft above sea level. I had never given much thought to my oxygen requirements during labor and delivery until I attended the hospital's birth class. Skimming briefly over what causes pain during labor, one bullet point mentioned lactate accumulation during uterus contractions (it actually said lactic acid, but I'll translate into more current terms). Regardless of whether or not I believe this to be a cause of pain (or whether or not it is actually a very efficient fuel in exercise -- read this), I have to conclude that based on the fact that there will be less oxygen in my L & D room, my hardworking muscles will accumulate lactate more quickly than they would at sea level (LT is reached at a lower level of exercise when at altitude).

This, of course, brings up many more questions in my mind. First of all, is it really true? Just because a muscle contracts doesn't mean it is accumulating lactate beyond threshold levels. I don't completely trust this booklet or instructor when it comes to specifics, especially after the instructor told us, "You know all those hormones that made you cranky and nauseated in early pregnancy? Well those are now your mucus plug." What?? When I looked around the room to see if anybody else was thinking about congealed hormones and smirking, I got only blank stares. Is nobody paying attention? Anyway, back to the uterus contractions. I started thinking about the make up of fast or slow twitch muscle fibers, but smooth muscle fibers are not classified this way.

I did find some studies on the correlations on the levels of lactate in the uterus and complications in delivery (usually resulting in cesareans). So I wondered if all my training over the years to help my body better utilize that lactate will come in handy. Surely my efforts will be rewarded.

Then I started thinking of my baby. I have heard that APGAR scores tend to be lower for babies born at altitude; it's hard to pink up quickly when you have less oxygen to help you do that. I found a good article summing up a recent study on rats born at altitude who were then kept there for the first 2 weeks of life (and one with some graphs- I love graphs). They were in Bolivia, at almost 12,000ft of elevation, which is significantly different from the measly 7000ft at which my baby will start. Plus we don't plan on staying there for two weeks, much less for the full proportion of life when comparing human life span vs. rat life span.

Some of the differences seen in these rat babies at altitude included higher hematocrit and hemoglobin, bigger hearts, lower oxygen uptake and lower carbon dioxide production. Sounds like a good start for endurance athletics! However, the researchers actually saw these results as negatives. It could be because the high altitude group died off significantly faster... But like I said, we're not reconstructing that study with our baby anyway. It was just a fun thought.