Fetal circulation

Fetal circulation
The fetal circulatory system includes three shunts to divert blood from undeveloped and partially functioning organs, as well as blood supply to and from the placenta.
Anatomical terminology []

In animals that give live birth, the fetal circulation is the circulatory system of a fetus. The term usually encompasses the entire fetoplacental circulation, which includes the umbilical cord and the blood vessels within the placenta that carry fetal blood.

The fetal (prenatal) circulation works differently from normal postnatal circulation, mainly because the lungs are not in use. Instead, the fetus obtains oxygen and nutrients from the mother through the placenta and the umbilical cord. The advent of breathing and the severance of the umbilical cord prompt various neuroendocrine changes that shortly transform fetal circulation into postnatal circulation.

The fetal circulation of humans has been extensively studied by the health sciences. Much is known also of fetal circulation in other animals, especially and model organisms such as mice, through the health sciences, veterinary science, and life sciences generally.

Blood from the placenta is carried to the fetus by the umbilical vein. In humans, less than a third of this enters the fetal ductus venosus and is carried to the inferior vena cava, while the rest enters the liver proper from the inferior border of the liver. The branch of the umbilical vein that supplies the right lobe of the liver first joins with the portal vein. The blood then moves to the right atrium of the heart. In the fetus, there is an opening between the right and left atrium (the foramen ovale), and most of the blood flows through this hole directly into the left atrium from the right atrium, thus bypassing pulmonary circulation. The continuation of this blood flow is into the left ventricle, and from there it is pumped through the aorta into the body. Some of the blood moves from the aorta through the internal iliac arteries to the umbilical arteries, and re-enters the placenta, where carbon dioxide and other waste products from the fetus are taken up and enter the maternal circulation.