What it means
Lanugo grows in the middle of pregnancy and is mostly shed before a full-term birth, so babies born early have more of it, especially on the back and shoulders. Its amount is one of the things used to estimate a newborn's gestational age. It can also grow in people with severe malnutrition, as in anorexia nervosa.
At a glance
| Spanish | lanugo |
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Related terms
small for gestational age
Describes a newborn whose birth weight is below the 10th percentile for the number of weeks of pregnancy.
childbirth
The process of giving birth to a baby, through the vagina or by cesarean surgery.