This section will describe common word components related to fertilization, pregnancy, and childbirth. These word components help build definitions for many medical terms. Other common prefixes are described in Chapter 1.3, and common suffixes are described in Chapter 1.5.

Common Prefixes Related to Obstetrics

• ante-: Before
• dys-: Painful, labored, difficult
• intra-: Within
• micro-: Small
• multi-: Many
• neo-: New
• nulli-: None
• post-: After
• pre-: Before

Common Word Roots With a Combining Vowel Related To Obstetrics

• amni/o, amnion/o: Amnion, amniotic fluid
• cephal/o: Head
• chori/o: Chorion
• embry/o: Embryo
• episi/o: Vulva
• esophag/o: Esophagus
• fet/o or fet/i: Fetus, unborn offspring
• gravid/o: Pregnancy
• hydr/o: Water
• lact/o: Milk
• nat/o: Birth
• olig/o: Scanty, few
• omphal/o: Umbilicus, navel
• par/o: To bear, labor, childbirth, give birth to
• part/o: To bear, labor, childbirth, give birth to
• prim/i: First
• pseud/o: False
• puerper/o: Childbirth
• pylor/o: Pylorus, pyloric sphincter
• terat/o: Malformations

Common Suffixes Related to Obstetrics

• -a: No meaning, noun ending
• -al: Pertaining to
• -amnios: Amnion, amniotic fluid
• -centesis: Surgical withdrawal of fluid
• -cyesis: Pregnancy
• -e: Noun ending, no meaning
• -gen: Substance that produced, agent that produced
• -genic: Producing, originating, causing
• -graphy: Process of recording
• -ic: Pertaining to
• -is: Noun suffix, no meaning
• -itis: Inflammation
• -logist: Specialist who studies and treats
• -logy: Study of
• -oid: Resembling
• -oma: Tumor
• -rrhea: Discharge, flow
• -rrhexis: Rupture
• -stenosis: Constriction, narrowing
• -tocia: Birth, labor
• -tomy: Incision, cut into
• -um: Noun ending, no meaning
• -us: Noun ending, no meaning