| foetal death | <radiology> No foetal movement, no foetal heart movement, scalp oedema, Spalding's sign, hyperextended spine, thrombus within heart (12 Dec 1998) |
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| foetal death rate | The number of foetal deaths divided by the sum of live births and foetal deaths occurring in the same population during the same time period. Synonym: stillbirth rate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal development | Morphologic and physiologic growth and development of the mammalian embryo or foetus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal distress | Compromise of the foetus during the antepartum period (before labour) or intrapartum period (birth process). (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal doppler study | <radiology> Non-stress test (NST), external monitoring for 20 minutes; poor specificity, greater than4 foetal heart accelerations (greater than15 bpm over baseline for 15 seconds) following foetal movement in foetus greater than34 weeks, no heart accelerations in immaturity, sleep, maternal sedation contraction stress test (CST), external monitoring after oxytocin or maternal breast stimulation, greater than 3 uterine contraction in 10 minutes; 50% specificity uterine and umbilical artery waveform, elevated systolic:diastolic ratio = increased vascular resistance foetal aortic flow volume, 185-246 ml/kg/min see also: biophysical profile, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal dystocia | Difficult labour and delivery caused by the foetus' size (too big), shape or position. Dystocia comes from the Greek dys meaning difficult, painful, disordered, abnormal + tokos meaning birth. (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal electrocardiography | Recording the electrocardiogram of the foetus in utero. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal erythroblastosis | <haematology> A condition which develops in the foetus due to an incompatibility between the mother's blood type (RH factor) and the baby's. Maternal antibodies, which enter the foetal circulation during delivery attack the baby's red blood cells leading to haemolysis (rupture of the cells). Symptoms include an infant with an enlarged liver and spleen, swelling, jaundice and anaemia. (27 Sep 1997) |
| foetal face syndrome | <syndrome> A syndrome of facies resembling an early foetus with short forearms, and genital hypoplasia at birth, but without evidence of achondroplasia; leads to dwarfism without mental retardation. Synonym: Robinow's syndrome. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal gigantism | Excessive foetal or newborn size, e.g., cerebral gigantism and infants of diabetic mothers. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal growth retardation | The failure of a foetus to maintain its expected growth potential at any gestational stage. (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal habitus | Relationship of one foetal part to another. Synonym: foetal attitude. (05 Mar 2000) |
| foetal haemoglobin | <chemical> The form of haemoglobin normally comprising more than half of the haemoglobin in the foetus, composed of two alpha and two gamma polypeptides. It is also present in minimal amounts in adulthood and is abnormally elevated in aplastic anaemia, leukaemia, and certain types of thalassaemia. It has higher affinity for oxygen under physiologic conditions than does haemoglobin a. Chemical name: Haemoglobin F (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal heart | The heart of the foetus of any viviparous animal. It refers to the heart in the postembryonic period and is differentiated from the embryonic heart (heart/embryology) only on the basis of time. (12 Dec 1998) |
| foetal heart rate | In the foetus, the number of heart beats per minute, normally 120 to 160. (05 Mar 2000) |