Page 80 - What to Expect

Glossary

Electrode, sensor, or probe: Plastic strip or wire taped to the baby’s arm
or leg, or a disk taped on a baby’s chest to relay signals from the heart,
lungs and skin to monitors.
Electrolytes: Essential substances found in everyone’s body which are
electrically charged and give solutions such as blood or plasma the
ability to conduct electric current. A balance of electrolytes is important.
Dehydration causes an imbalance and needs treatment with electrolytes.
Endotracheal tube (ET tube): A plastic tube that is passed through the
baby’s nose or mouth into the windpipe (trachea) and is connected to a
ventilator (respirator).
Engorgement: The process of the breasts becoming uncomfortably large
and tight feeling. Either felt initially as the milk comes in several days
after the birth, or due to too low a frequency of milk expressing or breast-
feeding.
Extended posture: A position in which baby lies with straight arms and
legs.
Extubate: Removal of a tube from the trachea (airway) which is attached
to a ventilator.
F

Fontanelle: The large soft spot on the top, and the smaller one on the
back of the baby’s head. They will close within 12 and 18 months.

Formula milk: Special preparations of cow’s milk or soya bean, modified to
closely resemble the chemical composition in human breast milk.
G
Gavage feedings: Feedings through a tube inserted through the mouth
or nose that goes straight to the stomach.
Gastrostomy: An opening in the abdominal wall, created through surgery,
to provide nutrition straight to the stomach when the oesophagus is
injured or blocked, or to provide proper drainage after abdominal surgery
is performed to maximize nutrition.

Gestational age: The time (in weeks) from the last menstrual period. A full
term pregnancy is 40 weeks.

Glucose: A natural sugar which is a main source of energy for the body.

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