# Can someone please explain what all these terms mean?



## Pepper (Jan 25, 2004)

Is there a list somewhere that explains what these latin (I think they're latin) terms mean. I hear them all the time but would love to see a list with definitions of all of them.

Primi gravida, pri-nip, multi-gravida, etc.

I know they indicate how many children a woman has delivered, right?


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## Belle (Feb 6, 2005)

Primigravida
A woman that is pregnant for the first time.

Multigravida
A woman who has had at least one previous pregnancy.

I don't know what that second one is. Here's a link for you with some definitions.
http://www.surebaby.com/pregnancy_glossary_A.php


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## Golden (Mar 15, 2002)

I think you mean primip. short for primapara. It means you have given birth once. You can be a multigravida (more than one pregnancy), but still a primip, meaning one of the babies was not born live.

The common terms you hear are multip (has one kid already) and primip (first time mama).


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## doctorjen (May 29, 2003)

Technically, a primipara has birthed one child, and a multipara has birthed more than one. Nullipara means no previous births. Most of the time, though, in common use primipara is used to mean pregnant with the first child, and mulitpara is used to mean pregnant with any subsequent child. Technically, if you are just referring to the number of pregnancies, you would say nulligravida (for someone who has never been pregnant) primigravida (for someone pregnant for the first time) and multigravida (for someone pregnant for any subsequent pregnancy.) Gravida refers to pregnancies, with para refers to births, but in common use the terms are often mixed.
You may also hear the term "functional primipara" which means the person has not had a previous vaginal birth - as in someone who has had a cesarean birth, or a miscarriage, so is pregnant for the second, third, whatever time, but has not had a vaginal birth.
Nullip, primip, and multip are all just abbreviations for the above terms.


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## Pepper (Jan 25, 2004)

Thank you!

doctorjen, I appreciate the explanation


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

Oh, wow, this is what I took Latin for four years for!!

Para - refers to labor.

Gradiva - refers to pregnancy

Nulli - means never or none

Primi - means first

Multi - means many or more than one.

A grand multipara is a woman who has had more than four children. It used to be more than six children, but doctors tend to like to keep lots of women in the high risk categories.


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## orangebird (Jun 30, 2002)

Quote:

, but doctors tend to like to keep lots of women in the high risk categories.
:LOL


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