In medicine, gravidity refers to the number of times a woman has been pregnant,[1] regardless of whether the pregnancies were interrupted (by abortion, or fetal death) or resulted in a live birth.
In biology, the term gravid (from Latin gravid-us,-a, burdened, heavy[2]) is used to describe the condition of an animal (most commonly fish or reptiles) when carrying eggs internally. In entomology it describes a mated female insect.
- A gravida is a pregnant woman.
- A nulligravida or gravida 0 is a woman who has never been pregnant.
- A primigravida or gravida 1 is a woman who is pregnant for the first time or has been pregnant one time.
- A multigravida or more specifically a gravida 2 (also secundigravida), gravida 3, and so on, is a woman who has been pregnant more than one time.
- An elderly primigravida is a woman in her first pregnancy, who is at least 35 years old. This term is becoming less common as it may be considered offensive.[3]
The term gravida is generally coupled with para (and occasionally additional terms) to indicate more details of the woman's obstetric history.[4]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
