Fetal Breathing Movements in High Risk Pregnancy

Abstract

In 12 normal and 50 high risk pregnancies fetal breathing and fetal trunk movements were measured by real time ultrasound after the mothers had been given oral glucose. Fetal breathing was significantly reduced in the two fetuses which subsequently died and in five of six fetuses developing fetal distress in labour. Two patterns of breathing were noted in 23 fetuses with cessation of Intrauterine growth: either reduced fetal breathing or almost continuous breathing. Fetal trunk movements were more variable than breathing movements and a reduction in trunk movements had less predictive value.

Changes in fetal motility as a result of congenital disorders: an overview

“…The first publications on motor activity that differed from normal, as observed on real-time sonography, appeared in 1978. They concerned motor activity in high-risk populations for fetal growth restriction (FGR) 1,2 and fetuses of mothers with diabetes mellitus 3 . These publications appeared 7 years after the onset of articles on normal motor activity 4 .…”

Development of Human Fetal Behavior: A Review

“…They have been defined as downward movement of the diaphragm with outward movement of ab dominal contents and inward displacement of the thorax [60], It is now well established that breathing is a normal feature of fetal life which is episodic in nature, with circadian and ultradian biological rhythms [30,[61][62][63][64] and a tendency to be stimulated by glucose [65][66][67][68] and carbon dioxide [69,70] and inhibited by hypoxia [61,71,72], Much data have been accumulated on fetal breathing in chronically instrumented fetal animal prepa rations, especially the fetal Iamb. With the development of noninvasive technology for fetal observation, interest in fetal breathing extended to its use as a parameter of well being in the human fetus [73][74][75][76][77]. Suppres sion of fetal breathing has been suggested as an early predictor of fetal infection in pa tients with ruptured membranes [78], as a predictor of true preterm labor in pregnan cies complicated by preterm contractions [79], and as a predictor of the development of pulmonary hypoplasia in fetuses at high risk of this complication [80,81].…”

Fetal Breathing Movements and Fetal Distress

“…The cardiotocograph score will differentiate between a non-compromised fetus and one which is best delivered by urgent Caesarean section (Pearson and Weaver, 1978), and in addition the FBM percentage will give some indication of placental reserve and whether the fetus is likely to become distressed during labour. In this study four patients, whose CTGs scores were 4, all had abnormally low FBM percentages, but no CTG score was below 4 and no fetus showed the gasps or almost continuous breathing described by Trudinger et al (1978). A further study to compare breathing patterns and CTG scores in the seriously compromised fetus would be valuable.…”

“…The method employed was simple and required only a real time scanner and a stopwatch. No specific glucose load was used (Trudinger et al, 1978), but measurements were made at the peak of expected diurnal variation (Roberts et al, 1977). The observation period was deliberately short and the practice of extending it in the absence of movement is analagous to that of repeating an abnormal result before acting upon it.…”