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We present autopsy findings of a case of limb body wall complex (LBWC). The fetus had encephalocele, genitourinary agenesis, skeletal anomalies and body wall defects. The rare finding in our case is the occurrence of both cranial and urogenital anomalies. The presence of complex anomalies in this fetus, supports embryonal dysplasia theory of pathogenesis for LBWC.

Objective To derive population specific transverse cerebellar diameter/abdominal circumference ratio (TCD/AC ratio) for the assessment of normal fetal growth. Materials and methods A one-year prospective observational study conducted at the KLE University's teaching hospital, Belgaum. The TCD/AC ratio was calculated for 434 obstetric patients, who met the inclusion criteria and the arithmetic mean and 1 standard deviation (SD) was calculated for the population studied. Results Within the study population, the TCD/AC ratio assessed for normal fetal growth with gestational age ranging from 18 to 34 weeks was found to be a constant with a mean of 13.56 +/− 1.21(1 SD). Conclusion A normal standard value to assess normal fetal growth is required for a given set of population in order to be compared with those fetuses with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The TCD/AC value in our study remained a constant between gestational ages ranging from 18 to 34 weeks with a mean of 13.56 +/− 1.21.

Informed consent is the heart of ethical research. For any consent to be ethically valid, it should meet certain critical criteria— disclosure and understanding of relevant information, decision making competency of the participants, voluntariness of the decision and documentation of the agreement. Meeting all these criteria to obtain ethically valid consent from laboring women while conducting intrapartum trials is challenging because there is little time available during labor to provide study specific information necessary for the participant to understand and decide to sign the consent form. Moreover, women during labor may be anxious and distressed due to labor pains which is thought to interfere with the capacity to make decisions in some cases. Emphasis on these concerns may ultimately lead to the exclusion of many eligible women in labor from intrapartum clinical trials. In this paper, we discuss the ethical challenges and also the proposed recommendations to obtain ethically valid consent from women for conducting intrapartum clinical trials.