What's up my friend?!
What's going on?
I hope you're have a beautiful day!
I could not be having a better day, despite
the fact that we found not 1, but 2 CATERPILLARS
in our salad the other day, and now I'm scared
to eat salad ever again.
The best part is though, that my husband got
BOTH of them!
But now that I think about it, the chances
of there being more than 2 in there are pretty
high, so I wonder if I actually ate one without
realizing it.
Gross.
Have you ever found a bug in your salad before?
Please tell me yes, so I feel less alone.
But actually, a part of me wants to think
it rarely ever happens, and that this was
just once in a blue moon, so I'm not worried
about it happening ever again.
ANYWAY…you're probably wondering why we're
sitting here in my office at home… well
I have a super fun video planned for you today.
We are going to walk through fetal circulation.
But I'm actually going to draw it out for
you here on my computer, so this is going
to be new and exciting.
So if you are taking OB or maternity in nursing
school right now, or if you're headed that
direction, listen up.
Because you will absolutely be tested on this
at some point and I want you to do amazing
on your exam.
There are some really key differences between
the blood circulation of an adult, vs the
blood circulation of a baby inside it's momma.
If you haven't watched the previous video
I did on the pathway of blood flow through
the heart, make sure to check that one out
first and then come back to this video.
Because you really need to know what an adult
heart looks like before you can learn the
differences between that and a baby's heart
when it's inside the momma.
So, I'm going to trace it out for you so you
can follow along and so you'll finally understand
it after this.
So let's do it.
The first thing you need to know is that there
are 3 key differences in fetal circulation:
the ductus arteriosus, the foramen ovale,
and the ductus venosus.
The ductus arteriosus is a little hole that
connects the pulmonary artery and the aorta
to divert blood away from the lungs.
When the baby is inside it's momma, it's not
using it's lungs the breathe, so this ductus
arteriosus will allow blood to bypass the
lungs and give more blood to the rest of the
body.
The foramen ovale is another little hole that
connects the left and right atrium.
Since the baby isn't breathing itself, it
doesn't need to move blood into the pulmonary
circulation to get oxygen, it already comes
in oxygenated from the momma.
So the foramen ovale is a little hole here
that allows blood to pass from the right atrium
into the left atrium, which helps to bypass
the pulmonary circulation.
And finally, the ductus venosus is the last
one you'll need to know about, and this one
is located between the umbilical vein and
the liver.
The baby isn't using it's liver either when
it's inside the momma, so the ductus venosus
allows blood to pass from the umbilical vein
into the inferior vena cava.
Some blood does go to the liver, but this
opening allows more blood to go to the rest
of the baby's body.
So those are the 3 key things you need to
know.
So let's draw this pathway out.
The path of blood flow in a baby starts in
the placenta, and oxygenated blood travels
through the umbilical vein into the liver
area through the DUCTUS VENOSUS which allows
blood to bypass the liver and meet the inferior
vena cava.
That blood then dumps blood into the right
atrium, along with the superior vena cava.
From there, some of the blood goes into the
right ventricle and into the pulmonary artery
(to go to the lungs), but the majority of
it moves to the left atrium through
the FORAMEN OVALE.
The DUCTUS ARTERIOSIS is an opening in the
pulmonary artery to the aorta to help shunt
blood even more away from the lungs.
So some of the blood that ended up in the
right ventricle, will flow out from the pulmonary
circulation, and into the aorta and to the
baby's body.
This just helps to get as much blood to the
baby's body as possible, because the baby
isn't using their lungs yet and doesn't need
as much blood there right now.
From the left atrium, blood goes into the
left ventricle, into the aorta, and is distributed
through the baby's body and
back to the placenta through the umbilical
artery.
So that is the pathway of fetal circulation!
It's super important to mention that when
the baby is born, all of these holes should
close, so the baby's lungs and liver will
get blood.
I hope this breakdown helped you understand
fetal circulation more for nursing school.
And of course, if you need more help with
OB, maternity, or newborn topics for nursing
school, you'll definitely want to check out
the Maternal/Newborn course we have for you
inside the NursingSOS Membership Community.
I get a lot of requests from students asking
for more in-depth help on nursing school topics,
and this is the best way that I can help you.
When you join, you'll get access to all of
our courses, covering topics like med-surg,
fluids and electrolytes, how to study pharmacology,
how to write care plans, critical care, and
yes, maternity 
and newborn.
You're going to LOVE it!
Thanks for watching friend, now go become
the nurse that God created only YOU to be.
And I'll catch you in the next video!
