what is that my friend what is going on
I hope you are having a beautiful day I
could not be having a better day and
that is despite the fact that we found
not one but two caterpillars in our
salad the other day how is that even
possible now I'm afraid to eat solid
ever again have you ever found a bug in
your salad before please tell me yes so
I feel less alone but actually part of
me doesn't want to know that it happens
very often because I never want it to
happen again ever
anyway you're probably wondering why
we're sitting in my office here at home
and I have a super fun video planned for
you today we are gonna talk about fetal
circulation and I'm actually gonna draw
it out here for you on my computer so
you can actually see it and we can draw
out the pathway and everything to make
it really come alive for you so if you
are taking OB or Maternity in nursing
school right now or if you're heading
that direction in nursing school listen
up this video is for you you will
absolutely be tested on this at some
point and I really want you to do well
on your exam there are some key
differences between the blood
circulation of an adult and the blood
circulation of a baby when it's inside
its momma if you haven't watched the
previous video I did on the pathway of
blood flow through the heart be sure to
check that one out first and then come
back to this video because you really
need to know what an adult's heart looks
like before you can learn what a baby's
heart looks like when it's inside its
momma so I'm gonna trace this all out
for you so you can follow along and you
will finally understand it after this
video let's do it
[Music]
so the first thing you need to know is
that there are three key differences in
fetal circulation the ductus arteriosus
which is right here the foramen ovale
which is right here and the ductus
venosus which is right here the ductus
arteriosus is the little hole that
connects the pulmonary artery and the
aorta so it diverts blood flow away from
the lungs when the baby isn't inside its
mama it's not using its lungs so the
ductus arteriosus will help to divert
that blood bypass the lungs and give
more blood to the body the foramen ovale
is another little hole that connects the
left and the right
hm now since the baby isn't breathing by
itself it doesn't need to move blood
into the pulmonary circulation to get
oxygen it already comes in oxygenated
from the mama
so the foramen ovale here is a little
hole that allows blood to pass from the
right atrium to the left atrium which
helps to bypass that pulmonary
circulation and finally we have the
ductus venosus which is the last one
that you need to know about now this one
is located between the umbilical vein
right here that's the umbilical vein and
the liver so it's between the umbilical
vein and the liver so the baby isn't
using its liver either it's not using
its lungs or its liver when it's inside
it's mamas so the ductus venosus will
allow blood to pass from the umbilical
vein into the inferior vena cava right
here now some blood will still go to the
liver but this opening really allows
more blood to go to the rest of the
baby's body so those are the three key
differences that you need to know about
fetal circulation is the ductus
arteriosus the foramen ovale and the
ductus venosus so let's draw this out so
we can see what it looks like
the pathway of blood flow will start
here in the placenta right here and then
the blood will move through the
umbilical vein and that's oxygenated
blood it travels through the umbilical
vein into the liver area it'll travel
through the ductus venosus right here
which
so blood to bypass the liver and meet
the inferior vena cava like we said then
the blood is gonna move up here and get
dumped into the right atrium now from
here some of the blood goes into the
right ventricle and then into the
pulmonary artery and that will go to the
lungs but the majority of it moves to
the left atrium right here through that
foramen ovale like we said before so
that foramen ovale connects the right h
ham to the left atrium and allow law's
blood to pass through that so more more
blood is gonna go out to the body rather
than going up here through the pulmonary
circulation pulmonary artery into the
lungs
now the ductus arteriosus is an opening
in the pulmonary artery to the awarded
to help shunt blood even more away from
the lungs so some of the blood that
ended up going down here to the right
ventricle and then into the pulmonary
artery it'll flow out from that
pulmonary circulation into the aorta so
it's actually gonna come up this way and
go through that ductus arteriosus into
the aorta and out to the baby's body now
this just helps get as much blood to the
baby's body as possible because the baby
isn't using their lungs quite yet and it
doesn't need as much blood there right
now
so now because blood move from the right
atrium to the left atrium through the
foramen ovale we have blood here in the
left atrium now the blood from the left
atrium it goes to the left ventricle
down here and then it goes into the
aorta right through there now this is
now distributed through the baby's body
so it comes all the way over here meets
that little book there and goes out to
the body through the aorta now once the
blood has gone through the baby's body
and the baby has used up all that oxygen
to help keep itself alive and keep
itself helpless keep itself healthy then
all of that blood from the body is going
to go all the way back here all the way
back here to the placenta and now I am
actually gonna draw two arteries
sighs there are two to umbilical
arteries and one umbilical vein and the
way that I like to describe this to
nursing students is that you want to get
two A's in nursing school not one so
there's two arteries and one vein so my
friend that is the pathway of fetal
circulation it's super important to
mention that when a baby is born that
all of these holes all of these holes
the ductus venosus the ductus arteriosus
and the foramen ovale they all close up
so then the baby can use its lungs and
its liver I hope this breakdown helps
you understand this more for nursing
school and of course if you need more
help with OB or maternity or newborn
topics in nursing school you definitely
want to check out the nursing SOS
membership community where we have a
full maternal newborn course for you
inside the community I get a lot of
requests from nursing students for more
in-depth help with their specific
situations in nursing school and this
membership community is the best way
that I know how to help you with nursing
school when you join you look at access
to all of our courses including these
like med surg how to study pharmacology
fluids and electrolytes how to write
care plans critical care course and of
course the maternal newborn course for
you that will walk you through more in
this in-depth fetal circulation topics
and then all the other maternal newer
talks that you need to know about a
nursing school you are going to love it
so thank you so much for watching front
now go become the nurse that God created
only you to be and I will catch you in
the next video