Category: B
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Birth injury
An injury which a baby experiences during a difficult birth, e.g. brain damage. Harm to an infant’s body or to his/her ability to function as a result of instruments used or actions taken during the birth process. During childbirth, it is not uncommon for a baby to sustain minor injuries such as bruising and swelling…
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Birthing room
An area set up for childbirth in a hospital or other building to provide comfortable and homely surroundings. A room in which a woman can give birth in a homelike, relaxed setting, often attached to a hospital but sometimes in a freestanding maternity center. Developed largely in response to the perceived coldness of traditional hospital…
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Birthing pool
A special large bath in which pregnant women can relax before and when giving birth. A pool of warm water in which a woman can give birth to her baby. The infant is delivered into the water. The method was introduced during the 1980s and is claimed to make delivery less painful and upsetting.
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Birthing chair
A special chair in which a woman sits to give birth. A chair designed to use gravity to ease childbirth. Traditional in many cultures until modern times, as a simple high-backed stool with a hole in the center, the birthing chair has been revived in recent decades in modern designs that allow women to sit…
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Birthing
The process of giving birth using natural childbirth methods.
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Bipolar neurone
A nerve cell with two processes, a dendrite and an axon, found in the retina.
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Bipennate
Referring to a muscle with fibres which rise from either side of the tendon.
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Biparietal
Referring to the two parietal bones. Concerning the parietal bones or their eminences. Related to both parietal bones, which constitute a portion of the sides of the skull.
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Biotherapy
The treatment of disease with substances produced through the activity of living organisms such as sera, vaccines or antibiotics. In complementary medicine and in oncology, the use of biological response modifiers (e.g., interleukins, phytochemicals, or phytonutrients) to enhance the immune response, alter hormone levels, or assist in the treatment of cancer.
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Biosurgery
The use of living organisms in surgery and post-surgical treatment, especially the use of maggots or leeches to clean wounds.