| EMIC | emergency maternal and infant care; Environmental Mutagen Information Center |
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| MA | malignant arrhythmia; management and administration; mandelic acid; masseter; Master of Arts; matern... |
| MCH | Maternal and Child Health; mean corpuscular hemoglobin; muscle contraction headache |
| MCHB | maternal and child health bureau |
| MCHS | Maternal and Child Health Service |
one and one-half syndrome
| maternal deprivation | Prolonged separation of the offspring from the mother. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| maternal deprivation syndrome | <syndrome> A failure to thrive seen in infants and young children and exhibited as a constellation of physical signs, symptoms, and behaviours, usually associated with maternal loss, absence or neglect, and characterised by lack of responsiveness to the environment and often depression. (05 Mar 2000) |
| maternal dystocia | Dystocia caused by an abnormality or physical problem in the mother. (05 Mar 2000) |
| maternal effect gene | Gene, usually required for early embryonic development, whose product is secreted into the egg by the mother. The phenotype is thus determined by the mother's, rather than the egg's, genotype. Compare:. Zygotic effect gene. See: egg polarity gene. (18 Nov 1997) |
| maternal exposure | Exposure of the female parent, human or animal, to potentially harmful chemical, physical, or biological agents in the environment or to environmental factors that may include ionizing radiation, pathogenic organisms, or toxic chemicals that may affect offspring. It includes pre-conception maternal exposure. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal-foetal exchange | Exchange of substances between the maternal blood and the foetal blood through the placental barrier. It excludes microbial or viral transmission. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal health services | Organised services to provide health care to expectant and nursing mothers. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal immunity | <epidemiology> Immunity for a neonate provided by IgG antibody generated by a mother and passed across the placenta to the unborn offspring. This provides short lived protection (with a typical half life of 3-6 months) to the neonate. Also known as immunity. (05 Dec 1998) |
| maternal inheritance | Inheritance through the maternal cell line, for example through the oocyte and eggs. Mitochondrial genes are maternally inherited and various other nonMendelian forms of inheritance may also appear as maternal inheritance. (18 Nov 1997) |
| maternal mortality | Maternal deaths resulting from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in a given population. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal mortality rate | The number of maternal deaths related to childbearing divided by the number of live births (or by the number of live births + foetal deaths) in that year. The maternal mortality rate in the united states in 1993 (and 1994) was 0.1 per 1,000 live births, or 1 mother dying per 10,000 live births. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal mRNA | <molecular biology> Messenger RNA found in oocytes and early embryos that is derived from the maternal genome during oogenesis. See: masked messenger RNA. (18 Nov 1997) |
| maternal placenta | <anatomy> The part of the placenta derived from the uterine tissue. See: placenta. Synonym: maternal placenta, placenta uterina. (05 Mar 2000) |
| maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein | A plasma protein, alpha-fetoprotein (afp) is normally produced by the foetus. The level of afp in the blood serum of pregnant women provides a screening test for open neural tube defects (anencephaly and spina bifida) and for down syndrome (and other chromosome abnormalities). The maternal serum afp (msafp) tends to be unusally high with open neural tube defects and unsually low with down syndrome. (12 Dec 1998) |
| maternal welfare | Organised efforts by communities or organizations to improve the health and well-being of the mother. (12 Dec 1998) |