About Video

This video gives general description on fetal skull. From an obstetrical viewpoint, the fetal head is the most important part because an essential feature of labor is the adaptation between the fetal head and the maternal bony pelvis. This is more so important because cephalic or head presentation occurs in about 97% fetuses. Fetal skull is made up of frontal, two parietal, occipital and two temporal bones. Frontal bone forms the forehead, and in the fetus the frontal bone is in two halves which fuse into a single bone after the age of 6 years. Parietal bone lies on either side of the skull and occupies most of the skull. The occipital bone forms the back of the skull and part of its base. It joins with the cervical vertebrae. Temporal bone lies on each side of the head, closest to the ear. Brief description on sutures of fetal skull, fontanel which is the space created by the joining of two or more sutures, important landmarks in the fetal skull such as brow, face, vertex and occiput, and diameters of the fetal skull are presented in this video. A normal pelvis is easily able to permit engagement of fetal head in vertex and face presentations because the engaging diameter of the fetal skull is respectively suboccipitobregmatic and submentobregmatic, however in brow presentation it may not be able to take place because it is much bigger than engaging diameter of pelvic inlet.