Question about Newborn History and Physical Form

FemmeRN · Feb 19, 2009

lmt2000,

The G stands for "gravida", which means pregnant; the P stands for "para", which means birth. Latin, I think. It's an abbreviated system we use to describe a women's history of pregnancies and births. So, with this child, the G4P4 means you've been pregnant 4 times, and given birth 4 times. You were G3P3 after your third child's birth, which is why the forms differ.

hope that helps,

lmt2000 · Feb 19, 2009

Thanks so much for explaining, that makes perfect sense!

HealthShepherd · Feb 19, 2009

To be more precise, parity refers to how many times in the past you've brought a pregnancy past the point of viability. If you give birth to twins or triplets, that's 1 parity event, not two or three. Conversely, if you have a late-term abortion or intrauterine fetal death, it counts as parity.

There are more detailed versions of the GP code that include T (pregnancies reaching term), L (number of liveborn children), and A (spontaneous or induced abortions before viability).

So let's say you're pregnant for the third time; you've had one early miscarriage, and one set of twins born at term. You would be: G3 P1 T1 L2 A1. Complicated, eh?

There seems to be some differences in how the GP (or GPTLA) stats are used - in my hospital, it would be impossible for the gravidity number to be the same as the parity. Gravidity includes the current pregnancy (and even if you're recently post partum, it's still part of the "current" pregnancy story). Parity, on the other hands, refers to the outcomes of your earlier pregnancies. So let's say you have three singleton children and are pregnant again - you would be G4P3. After the fourth is born and you're receiving postnatal care, you'd still be referred to as G4P3, because the newborn isn't part of your history yet. But if your form said G4P4, then I guess that's how it's done where you are.