Biology

Pregnancy and Childbirth

964 Questions

This hub covers essential biology questions on pregnancy, fetal development, and childbirth. Topics include the placenta, maternal physiology, and the stages of labor. These concepts are frequently tested in general science sections of various competitive examinations.

Placenta and fetal nutritionStages of laborMaternal immune systemPregnancy complications

Pregnancy and Childbirth Questions

Multiple choice

Select the true statement regarding oxygen carriage by fetal blood in mother's womb.

  1. Blood returning to the developing embryo by the umbilical vein is fully saturated with oxygen.

  2. The develpoing embryo's hemoglobin has a higher affinity for oxygen than adult's hemoglobin.

  3. Fetal blood has a lower hemoglobin content than adult blood.

  4. Blood perfusing the brain of a develpoing embryo has the same PO2 as that of blood in the descending aorta.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Fetal blood has a higher hemoglobin content than adult blood and fetal hemoglobin has a higher affinity for O2 than adult hemoglobin. The O2 content of blood in the umbilical vein is about 160 ml/l.

Multiple choice

The condition of erythroblastosis arises when the respective Rh of mother and foetus, are

  1. Rh positive & Rh positive

  2. Rh positive & Rh negative

  3. Rh negative & Rh positive

  4. Rh negative & Rh negative
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

In order for the fetus to be Rh positive, the father must also be Rh positive. As a result, when the mother is Rh negative and the father is Rh positive (or his Rh type is unknown), doctors usually assume that there will be a serious medical problem.

Multiple choice

In a couple, male is Rh positive and the female is Rh negative, what are the chances that there will be a mother-foetus incompatibility problem? Assume that the couple has already had a child and that there has been no medical treatment to prevent this problem.

  1. 100%

  2. at least 50%

  3. lesser than 50%

  4. 0%
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

If the father is homozygous dominant (DD) the chances of the fetus being Rh positive and an incompatibility problem occurring will be 100%. If the father is heterozygous (Dd), the chances are 50%. There will be no problem if the fetus is Rh negative.

Multiple choice

Mother-foetus incompatibility problems originate from

  1. the mother's antibodies agglutinating the embryo's Rh positive RBCs

  2. the embryo's antibodies agglutinating his own RBCs.

  3. the embryo's antibodies agglutinating his mother's RBCs.

  4. the mother & embryo's antibodies agglutinating each other's RBCs.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

As a result of fetal blood entering the mother's system during her first pregnancy with an Rh positive baby, she will regularly produce antibodies to Rh antigens. They will pass through the placental barrier into her fetus and agglutinate its blood.

Multiple choice

Erythroblastosis foetal occurs _____.

  1. when the mother is Rh positive and the child is Rh negative

  2. when the father and child are both Rh negative, but the mother is Rh positive

  3. when the mother and child are both Rh positive, but the father is Rh negative

  4. when the mother is Rh negative and the child is Rh positive
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

Erythroblastosis foetalis occurs when an Rh-negative mother is sensitized to Rh-positive fetal red blood cells, usually during delivery, and subsequently produces anti-Rh antibodies. These IgG antibodies can cross the placenta in a subsequent Rh-positive pregnancy and destroy fetal RBCs.

Multiple choice

Which of the following includes in abdominal findings during normal pregnancy?

  1. Fundus is first palpable at 20th week.

  2. Fundus is at umbilicus at 36th week.

  3. Fundus is at xiphoid sternum at 20th week

  4. Fundal height increases approximately by 2cm/week after 24 weeks.

  5. A free head after 37 weeks in a multiparous woman.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

After 24 weeks, the fundal height increases by about 1cm/week. The head usually engages after 37 weeks in a nulliparous woman but is frequently not engaged before labour in multiparous women. Breech presentation is common before 34 weeks and is only of significance if the woman is in (preterm) labour.

Multiple choice

Which among the following is an example of negative feedback system?

  1. Lactation

  2. Sweating

  3. Childbirth

  4. Blood clotting

  5. Lac operon in e. coli
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

When the body temperature begins to rise, a negative feedback response works to counteract and stop the rise in temperature. Thus, sweating is a suitable example of negative feedback.

Multiple choice

Directions: Read the following information and answer the question that follows.

An NGO recently surveyed ten thousand women who had given birth in the last year to their first child in the city. Half of these women had chosen to have their children in a hospital or private clinic; the other half had chosen to give birth at home. Of the five thousand births that occurred in the home, only twenty-five had presented any serious complications, whereas one hundred of the hospital births had required extra attention because of complications during delivery. The NGO concluded that the hospitals are risky places in which to give birth than are homes.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the social worker’s conclusion?

  1. Women who are expected to experience complications during delivery are encouraged to give birth in a hospital or private clinics.

  2. Many doctors discourage their patients from giving birth at hospitals.

  3. Women who give birth in their homes tend to experience less stress during labour and delivery than do those who deliver in hospitals.

  4. Women who give birth to their children in hospitals often have shorter periods of labour than those who give birth at home.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

Because women who gave birth in a hospital had more complications than women who gave birth at home, the conclusion is that if women want to avoid complications, they should give birth in their homes. This would be a valid conclusion if women arbitrarily chose where to give birth.