A popular tactic for defending abortion rights is appealing to self-ownership: since I own my body, a foetus has the right to occupy it only if I allow it. One cannot be forced to bring a pregnancy to term because that would violate one's self-ownership. The same logic applies to speech: we have freedom of speech because we produce speech using the bodies that we own. To curtail that speech violates our self-ownership, or in a phrase: my body, my speech.

Sowerby's beaked whale is a deep-diving cetacean species specialized to live in the deep waters of the North Atlantic, including offshore Irish waters. Sightings of Sowerby's beaked whales in this area are infrequent and a substantial increase in our knowledge of their presence comes from recent static acoustic monitoring (SAM) and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM). However, most information on this species has been derived from stranding records, which provide opportunistic insights into this elusive species' cryptic life history. Here we report on the live stranding of a 1200 mm long neonate and an adult 5 m female Sowerby's beaked whale in July 2015 and on the stranding of a 4.9 m pregnant female in September 2020 with a 495 mm long male foetus in the south-west of Ireland. These stranding events provide an important insight into the reproductive life history of this species and provide further evidence that Sowerby's beaked whales calve in offshore Irish waters.

We describe two cases of an unusual variant of double outlet right ventricle with intact ventricular septum diagnosed prenatally and confirmed by foetal autopsy in a case. The first case had mitral valve atresia, slit-like left ventricle, and normally related great arteries. The second case had mitral valve atresia, hypoplastic left ventricle, parallel outflows with an interrupted aortic arch.

To improve production efficiency, the sheep meat industry has increased flock prolificacy. However, multiple-born lambs have lower birth weights, increased mortality and reduced growth rate compared with single-born lambs. Lamb mortality is a major issue for livestock farming globally and solutions are required to increase survival to realise the value of increased flock fecundity. Nutrition during gestation can influence maternal–foetal placental nutrient transfer and thus foetal growth and organ/tissue development, as well as improve postnatal productivity. This review covers the challenges and opportunities associated with increased prolificacy, highlights gaps in our knowledge and identifies some opportunities for how targeted intervention with specific nutrients during mid-to-late pregnancy may influence lamb survival and productivity with a specific focus on pasture-based systems. This time frame was selected as intervention strategies in short-time windows post-pregnancy scanning and before lambing to improve lamb survival in high-risk groups (e.g. triplets) are likely to be the most practical and economically feasible options for pasture-based extensive farming systems.

Much has been learned during the past several decades about the role of maternal nutrition in the outcome of pregnancy. While the bulk of the data is derived from animal models, human observations are gradually accumulating. There is need to improve maternal nutrition because of the high neonatal mortality rate especially in developing countries. The author used a conceptual framework which took both primary and secondary factors into account when interpreting study findings. Nutrition plays a vital role in reducing some of the health risks associated with pregnancy such as risk of fetal and infant mortality, intra-uterine growth retardation, low birth weight and premature births, decreased birth defects, cretinism, poor brain development and risk of infection. Adequate nutrition is essential for a woman throughout her life cycle to ensure proper development and prepare the reproductive life of the woman. Pregnant women require varied diets and increased nutrient intake to cope with the extra needs during pregnancy. Use of dietary supplements and fortified foods should be encouraged for pregnant women to ensure adequate supply of nutrients for both mother and foetus. The author concludes that nutrition education should be a core component of Mother and Child Health Clinics and every opportunity should be utilised to give nutrition education on appropriate diets for pregnant women.

A 21-week gestational age foetus was diagnosed with left ventricular non-compaction, Ebstein’s anomaly, sinus bradycardia, first-degree heart block, and agenesis of the ductus venosus. The prognosis was guarded given the constellation of findings, and the foetus was monitored closely. Despite a potentially poor outcome, the foetus survived. Prognosis in foetally diagnosed left ventricular non-compaction is usually poor; however, rarely, foetuses can survive postnatally.

Foetal echocardiography has become an established subspecialty in paediatric cardiology. The skills to perform detailed assessment of foetal cardiac anomalies in a tiny, moving foetus surrounded by sometimes challenging layers of maternal tissue are not easy to obtain, and require prolonged periods of specific training and supervised scanning in expert centres. The goal of this overview is to discuss the importance of the awareness of the fact that expert examination of the foetal heart and in-depth knowledge of newborn surgical interventions are only a part of the picture; many cardiac abnormal foetuses do not just have an isolated cardiac defect. The extracardiac malformations, when present, play a major role in determining the treatment and prognosis. The challenge of providing optimal prenatal care to the pregnant woman, who remains the primary patient at least until the umbilical cord is cut, carrying a foetus with a cardiac malformation is to organise rapid, effective, and complete evaluation of all possible foetal anomalies in a multidisciplinary team approach, followed by clear and honest non-directive counselling on all possible options. Only then, with the maximum involvement of the parents, decisions on perinatal management can be taken by the team. Controversies do exist in view of various obstetric, paediatric, and other specialists on how to best organise this multidisciplinary care programme. In this paper, we provide a practical, logical, and efficient path of care for the pregnant woman suspected to carry a foetus with a heart defect.

Second trimester screening for congenital heart defects occurs during the routine 18–20 weeks’ anomaly scan in many countries. Most congenital heart defects can be prenatally detected by experts in foetal echocardiography working in tertiary centres with high-risk pregnancies. Many studies, however, have shown that detection rates obtained by experts are not reproducible in the low-risk peripheral practices where most of the foetal screening takes place. As the majority of foetuses with congenital heart defects are born to mothers with no identifiable risk factors, it is important that widespread screening of the low-risk population occurs. To facilitate this, standard protocols have been introduced in several countries, but they are not universal and have differing sensitivities depending on the screening views advocated and the area studied. Initially, only performing the four-chamber view (basic scan) was advocated. By adding the outflow tract views (extended scan), three-vessel, and laterality views, the sensitivity of the examination can be significantly increased. Unfortunately, the sensitivity of these extended protocols still does not meet that obtainable in experienced hands, reflecting the additional skill required to obtain these extended views. Thus, close links are required between the tertiary centres and the screening centres to teach and maintain the skills required to obtain and interpret the required views, and to support the sonographer’s commitment. Furthermore, an audit system is required to trace false-positive and -negative cases so that targeted interventions can be planned. This is important, as a missed case of prenatal congenital heart defect is potentially a missed opportunity to reduce postnatal morbidity and mortality.

We present the images of the first superior-type caval vein defect diagnosed in a foetal echocardiogram.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the timing of neonatal cardiac intervention in babies with antenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease and the impact on obstetric management. Methods: A retrospective review of all deliveries between January, 2008 and December, 2009 was conducted in a tertiary centre with foetal and paediatric cardiology, maternal–foetal medicine, and obstetric units. All live births with antenatally detected congenital heart disease were included. Data were collected from foetal, paediatric cardiology, and maternity databases and records. Induction, delivery mode, and timing of the first cardiac intervention in the neonate were studied. Results: 205 deliveries were included. Induction and elective Caesarean section rates were 51.2% (105/205) and 14.1% (29/205), respectively. The vaginal delivery rate was 56% (115/205). There was a non-significant trend towards a higher rate of vaginal delivery after spontaneous labour than after induction (75% versus 66%; p = 0.234). The rate of neonatal cardiac intervention during the initial stay was 59.5% (122/205); it was 18.5% (38/205) within 48 hours and 25.8% (53/205) within 72 hours. The median time to first intervention was 4 days (interquartile range 2–8). Babies with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (median 3, interquartile range 2–6), transposition of the great arteries (median 1, interquartile range 0–4.5), and arrhythmia (median 0.5, interquartile range 0–1) had a significantly earlier time to first intervention compared with those with other conditions (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Vaginal delivery can be achieved in women delivering babies with major congenital heart disease at a tertiary centre. Delivery in or near a tertiary centre is recommended for patients requiring early intervention, of which many can be identified in advance.

Egyptian foetal mummies are rare archaeological artefacts. We report the case of a mummified foetus with a highly probable dextrocardia accurately depicted by computed tomography scan.

Left ventricular aneurysms in the foetus are a rare abnormality that can occur in isolation or associated with pentalogy of Cantrell. Here, we report a case of a foetus with a left ventricular aneurysm in association with interruption of the aortic arch, and no features of pentalogy of Cantrell. To our knowledge, this is the first report of such an association.

Urea production may be impaired in intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), increasing the risk of toxic hyperammonaemia after birth. Arginine supplementation stimulates urea production, but its effects in IUGR are unknown. We aimed to determine the effects of IUGR and arginine supplementation on urea production and arginine metabolism in the ovine foetus. Pregnant ewes and their foetuses were catheterised at 110 days of gestation and randomly assigned to control or IUGR groups. IUGR was induced by placental embolisation. At days 120 and 126 of gestation, foetal urea production was determined from [14C]-urea kinetics and arginine metabolism was determined from the appearance of radioactive metabolites from [3H]-arginine, both at baseline and in response to arginine or an isonitrogenous mixed amino acid supplementation. Urea production decreased with gestational age in the embolised animals (13.9 ±  3.1 to 11.2 ±  3.0 μmol/kg per min, P ≤ 0.05) but not in the controls (13.3 ±  3.5 to 14.8 ±  6.0 μmol/kg per min). Arginine supplementation increased urea production in both groups, but only at 126 days of gestation (control: 15.0 ±  8.5 to 17.0 ±  9.4 μmol/kg per min; embolised: 11.7 ±  3.1 to 14.3 ±  3.1 μmol/kg per min, P ≤ 0.05). Embolisation reduced foetal arginine concentrations by 20% ( P ≤ 0.05) while foetal arginine consumption was reduced by 27% ( P ≤ 0.05). The proportions of plasma citrulline and hydroxyproline derived from arginine were reduced in the embolised animals. These data suggest that foetal urea production and arginine metabolism are perturbed in late gestation after placental embolisation.

Regulation of foetal development in sheep depends on interactions between the intrinsic capacity of the foetus for growth and the maternal environment. Lambs born in multi-foetus litters have relatively small placentae with fewer cotelydons, and lower birth weights. Litter-size-dependent intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is evident at mid gestation when metabolic needs of the conceptus are moderate, and overnutrition of ewes with multiple foetuses does not promote growth of their foetuses to the size of singletons. Those observations suggest that placental and conceptus growth in multi-foetus pregnancies is reprogrammed at mid gestation by an as yet undefined mechanism to attenuate foetal growth. This may protect the foetus from severe nutritional insult during late gestation, when its daily growth rate is at a maximum. In that way, lambs born in large litters with relatively lower birth weights may not experience the long-term physiological insults that can be observed in small lambs born to undernourished ewes.

Pregnant mares are often removed from work during gestation. However, little is known about the effects of exercise on the pregnant mare and her foetus. In the present study, maternal and foetal heart rates were monitored by electrocardiography before and after exercise in four equine pregnancies (days 250–285). Exercise consisted of lungeing mares in 20 m circles for 5, 10 and 20 min. Following exercise, significant increases in maternal heart rate were detected (P<0.0001) but not in foetal heart rate (P = 0.4331). All mares gave birth to normal foals uneventfully. While these findings suggest that moderate exercise of the pregnant mare does not appear to be harmful to the equine foetus, data are insufficient to draw conclusions. A larger, more controlled study is necessary.