Intrauterine hypoxia can cause cellular damage that occurs within the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord).

[10] During pregnancy, women with preeclampsia faces serious risk of damage to vital organs such as the kidneys, liver, brain, and the blood system.

This hypertensive disorder may also cause damage to the placenta leading to issues such as premature births, miscarriages, placental abruption, or even stillbirths.

[14] Conditions such as obesity, nutritional deficiencies, infections, chronic inflammations, and stress can also affect the maternal oxygen supply and fetal uptake.

[16] Nicotine alone has been shown to be a teratogen which affects the autonomic nervous system, leading to increased susceptibility to hypoxia-induced brain damage.

[25][26] Post-placental hypoxia is associated with mechanical obstructions of the umbilical cords, reduced uterine artery flow, progressive fetal cardiac failure, and genetic anomalies.

[27] Treatment of infants with birth asphyxia by lowering the core body temperature is now known to be an effective therapy to reduce mortality and improve neurological outcome in survivors, and hypothermia therapy for neonatal encephalopathy begun within 6 hours of birth significantly increases the chance of normal survival in affected infants.

[30] Research by Ola Didrik Saugstad and others led to new international guidelines on newborn resuscitation in 2010, recommending the use of normal air instead of 100% oxygen.

[31][32] Increasing the oxygen concentration to the mother has shown little effect on the fetus as hyperoxygenated blood does not perfuse the placental exchange site well.

[39] In the United States, intrauterine hypoxia and birth asphyxia were listed together as the tenth leading cause of neonatal death.