Mrs. patton has been 3 weeks past her due date to have her first baby. you decide you need to induce labor by giving her an injection of a synthetic form of a natural hormone. what hormone are you going to give her?

The hormone to be given is oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone produced by the paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus then stored in the posterior pituitary gland (along with antidiuretic hormone or vasopressin) that is responsible mainly for uterine contraction and milk ejection or letdown. Oxytocin induces contraction of the myoepithelial cells in the breast for milk letdown. On the other hand, there is upregulation of oxytocin receptors during parturition which makes the uterus more sensitive to oxytocin. Oxytocin is also known to induce labor and reduce post-partum bleeding.

it provides an alternative energy pathway for the reaction to proceed.

a catalyst is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction but is not consumed during the course of the reaction.

catalysts increase the rate of reaction without being used up. they do this by lowering the activation energy needed. with a catalyst, more collisions result in a reaction, so the rate of reaction increases. different reactions need different catalysts.

a catalyst works by providing an alternative reaction pathway to the reaction product. the rate of the reaction is increased as this alternative route has a lower activation energy than the reaction route not mediated by the catalyst.