For a premature fetus, this period would be the last 93 days of the pregnancy, which will include part of the second trimester.
To evidence pathological features of malaria during the course of pregnancy and in the developing fetus, this infection period was determined to be the optimal time point as earlier infections did not allow reaching pregnancy at term (data not shown), which is consistent with previous reports [26], [27], [31].
Our combined in vivo in vitro investigations have resulted in a new understanding of the materno-fetal relationship during the first trimester of pregnancy and led to the hypothesis that the placenta limits, rather than facilitates, oxygen supply to the fetus during the period of organogenesis [1], [2].
Still birth was therefore defined as birth of a dead fetus with gestation period of 7 months or more.
Until the air sacs are mature enough to permit gases to pass into and out of the bloodstream, which is extremely unlikely until at least 23 weeks gestation (from last menstrual period), a fetus cannot be sustained even with a respirator, which can force air into the lungs but cannot pass gas from the lungs into the bloodstream.
While the disease is normally mosquito-borne, there is new evidence that it can also spread through sexual contact and from mother to fetus, causing a longer period of infectiousness and making it easier to spread when foreign nationals return to their home counties.
As a result, we found that mitosis and immunity genes were distinctively expressed throughout the period from fetus to 30 weeks old, while defense and control genes began to express from 12 weeks old.
Cardiotocography monitoring for the fetus, in this early period (before 24 GW) is not so feasible (Lovas et al. 2011 ).
Access is defined as "the potential ability of women to enter prenatal care services and maintain care for herself and fetus during the perinatal period" (p. 220) [ 26].
This trend corresponds to the availability of ultrasound techniques capable of determining the sex of the fetus during the prenatal period [ 15].
