The present invention relates to a method for the early diagnosis of a clinically latent placental insufficiency in pathological placental maturation, and the prophylaxis of an intrauterine fetal hypoxia/asphyxia at the due date or after a prolonged gestation, comprising determining the amount and/or the concentration of the biomarker prokineticin 1 (EG-VEGF) and/or its receptor PKR1 and/or PKR2 in a sample from the pregnant subject and/or the pregnancy. In a preferred embodiment, the invention is based on determining the ratio of the amount and/or the concentration of bFGF/PK1 as a measure of current functional condition and an indicator of latent clinical problems such as placental dysfunction resulting in fetal hypoxia.
