Picture of 35-week fetus in the belly

After 20 weeks of pregnancy, many pregnant women will feel that the fetus has hiccups in the uterine cavity, and this happens in waves. At present, in clinical work, it is believed that this type of hiccups are a kind of fetal movement, and does not mean that the fetus has abnormal conditions or lack of oxygen in the uterine cavity. However, when the fetus hiccups in the uterine cavity, you should also pay attention to the fetal movements, especially other forms of fetal movements. If there is no obvious abnormality in the baby's fetal movement and hiccups, this situation will not affect the fetus at all. If there are only hiccups, and other fetal movements have subsided or the number of hiccups has also decreased, fetal heart rate monitoring should be done to assess the condition of the fetus in the uterine cavity.

Generally speaking, there are three postures of the fetus in the pregnant mother's belly. One is the head position, that is, the baby's head is facing down. After 28 weeks until the pregnant woman gives birth, most of them are in the head-down posture. There is also breech presentation, when the head is facing up and the buttocks are facing down, which is a transverse position of the fetus. If the pregnant woman is in this position during delivery, natural birth cannot be chosen, and a caesarean section is relatively safer. There is also a transverse position, where the fetus is lying horizontally in the uterus, and natural delivery is not an option. Of course, most fetuses are positioned head down and then curled up.

According to ultrasound imaging observations, the fetus has breathing movements in the uterine cavity, which are mainly manifested by the left and right movements of the diaphragm and the expansion and contraction of the diaphragm. This indicates that the fetus has inhalation-like movements in the uterine cavity, which can make the amniotic fluid of the pregnant woman flow in the fetus's airways and promote the development and improvement of the fetal lungs. However, the fetus in the uterine cavity is in the middle of the amniotic fluid of the pregnant woman without gas and cannot breathe, so the fetus's breathing is actually maintained by the embryo.

The embryo supplies blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the fetus. The metabolites, waste products, and carbon dioxide exhaled by the fetus also enter the mother through the embryo, pass through the kidneys, and replace the fetus's breathing through the mother's respiratory tract and lungs. Therefore, the embryo is actually the kidneys and lungs of the fetus. The fetus has breathing-like movements in the uterine cavity, but does not breathe.