Fear of Childbirth among Pregnant Women Availing Antenatal Services in a Maternity Hospital in Rural Karnataka.

Background: Pregnancy, though joyful, may be a time of fear and anxiety. Twenty percent of pregnant women in developed nations report a fear of childbirth, and 6%-10% describe a severe fear that is crippling. This could lead to adverse maternal and fetal outcomes.

Correlation of arterial fetal base deficit and lactate changes with severity of variable heart rate decelerations in the near-term ovine fetus.

Objective: Recent guidelines classify variable decelerations without detail as to degree of depth. We hypothesized that variable deceleration severity is highly correlated with fetal base deficit accumulation.

Study Design: Seven near-term fetal sheep underwent a series of graded umbilical cord occlusions resulting in mild (30 bpm decrease), moderate (60 bpm decrease), or severe (decrease of 90 bpm to baseline <70 bpm) variable decelerations at 2.