Absence of fetal breathing and abnormal fetal behavior in prolonged preterm ruptured membranes: case report.

A case is described where prolonged serial observations were carried out on a fetus, between 26 and 3.5 weeks' gestation, the membranes having been ruptured from 23 weeks. No fetal breathing or cyclical activity was observed, and there was no evidence of development of linkage between the fetal behavioral state variables. This was not associated with respiratory morbidity in the neonatal period, but subsequently with severe developmental delay, microcephaly, myoclonic epilepsy and hearing impairment. Absence of fetal breathing may be a more important predictor of prenatal neurological abnormality than of respiratory morbidity following birth.