Pregnancy
The period between conception and the complete delviery of the foetusand the other products of conception, that is, the afterbirth and foetal membranes; or the period between conception and an interruption of pregnancy, as by abortion. The average human pregnancy lasts 280 days or 9 calender months.
Abdominal pregnancy is a very rare type of ectopic pregnancy in which the conceptus implants in the abdominal wall or in the outer intestinal wall.
Adolescent pregnancy is the pregnancy occurring during adolescence, roughly the period from 12 to 21. Surveys indicate that most unmarried pregnant girls had little or no sex education, and more than 75% stated that they do not use contraceptives at all, or only occasionally, and usually insist that their partners do so.
Ectopic pregnancy: A pregnancy in which the fetus develops outside the uterus - in an overy, a fallopian tube, or the abdominal cavity. Also known as: extrauterine pregnancy.
Hysterical pregnancy: A false pregnancy or pseudocyesis, usually resulting from emotional conflict and immaturity.
Male pregnancy: The idea that males can concieve under certain conditions. For example; the Keraki of New Guinea believe that anal insemination could occur among boys who submit to older men during puberty rites; some Navaho insist that a man can become pregnant if his wife is on top during intercourse; and some black homosexuals hold that the semen may itself develop into a 'blood baby' which makes the belly swell, followed by labor pains and a bloody delivery from the rectum.
Marijuana and pregnancy: A term referring to the use of marijuana by pregnant women, reported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to range between 10 and 37%. The NIH has reported that its studies of effects of marijuana on fetal development are confounded by a number of variables such as the use of other substances, nutrition during pregnancy, changes in the use of marijuana during pregnancy, changes in use of marijuana during pregnancy , and the trimester or trimesters during it was used. Also confounding the results is the accuracy of recall of these factors by the women interviewed. The NIH has found suggestive evidence that marijuana use by a oregnant woman interferes with normal fetal growth and may affect the visual or other neurological responses of the offspring. The NIH reports add that women who use marijuana are also likely to use tobacco and alcohol, which are themselves harmful.
Mask of pregnancy: A popular term for chloasma, a condition of increased pigmentation that develops over the bridge of the nose and cheeks of some women who are pregnant. The condition also may occur in women using oral contraceptives.
Midwife: A person trained as a birth attendant and assistant. In developed nations, however, midwifes need to be licenced as nurses or nurse practitioners.
Pseudopregnancy: A condition created in the female reproductive system by oral contraceptives. The contraceptives create through their content of female sex hormones a simulated pregnancy that supresses ovulation, just as natural female sex hormones help supress further ovulation when a woman is already pregnant.
Teenage pregnancy: Pregnancy that occurs in females under the age of 20, for whom the majority of births would be out of wedlock and presumably unintended.
Unwanted pregnancy: A term referring to the number of undesired and usually unplanned children per couple. In the United States at present the number of children unwanted by at least one parent has been conservatively estimated at over one million per year, and the number born to poor parents has been estimated at double the number born to the more affluent.
Sex during pregnancy: A term referring to the advisability of continuing intercourse during pregnancy. Specialists usually allow their patients to continue sex relations untul approximately the seventh month if there is no discharge or pain. As pregnancy advanced, some modification of coital position will be necessary. They also assure their patients that intercourse will not harm the baby or cause a miscarriage.
Also see: abortion, pregnancy fantasies
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