Labour Ward - Gravida and Para

1. Gravida and Para - describing Obstetric History

Introduction

This is something that you may hear when a midwife describes the history of a lady. In essence it describes how times the patient has been pregnant, whether the premises are viable, and whether there has been a termination.

 Often you will hear the term para -  and they emit the gravida bit,  that is because really on the labour ward the anything that re-matters is how the babies the woman has had.

You may also hear the term primip  short for primiparous -  this refers to a lady who was giving birth for the first time

 or a multip ---  short for multiparous -  which means that the lady has had many babies.

 occasionally you will hear the term grandmultip -  which is when the lady has had five babies.

 what is the relevance? -  Mainly to do with the expectation of how long the labour will be.

  the following video describes this