He was a founding editor of the Journal of Perinatal Medicine,[3] a widely published author, a lecturer, and as of 2010[update] the only Uruguayan to be nominated for a Nobel Prize.

[4] In 1950, he recorded for the first time intramiometrial pressure in different parts of the uterus during labor, defining the pattern of normal uterine contractility having a "triple descendant gradient".

[citation needed] In 1958, Caldeyro-Barcia and Alvarez developed a method to measure the effect of uterine contractions on fetal heart rate, which would later become the basis of fetal monitoring, commonly used to monitor the fetus's response to contractions during labor and to prevent any neurological damage resulting from oxygen deprivation.

[3] The pair referred to the typical abnormal response of the fetal heart rate during labor as "type II DIP"; the term was later changed to late deceleration[broken anchor] by other researchers.

It provided training to doctors from Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Spain, as well as a vast number of Latin Americans, many of whom are today faculty members in their countries of origin.

Together with Edward Hon, Stanley James, and Erich Saling, Caldeyro-Barcia was a founding editor of the Journal of Perinatal Medicine.

[8] After Caldeyro-Barcia retired from the chair in Gynaecology at the University of the Republic, which was created for him, the government of Uruguay appointed him to direct a program that developed basic sciences at the university: Programa de Desarrollo de las Ciencias Básicas (PEDECIBA, "Program for the Development of Basic Sciences").

Presented during the congress's opening ceremonies in Barcelona, Spain in September 2010, the prize winner must be an expert in obstetrics and perinatal medicine.