[Post-traumatic feto-maternal hemorrhage. Apropos of a case]

When a sinusoidal fetal heart rate pattern suggestive of severe anaemia is found one always has to think of feto-maternal haemorrhage. The diagnosis is made using the Kleihauer test. The quantity of fetal blood loss as estimated by this test must be suspect from this case history and from the figures that are quoted in the literature. It will probably be advisable to compare the Kleihauer test and electrophoresis of the haemoglobin in trying to estimate the quantity of blood that has passed from the fetus to the mother. In any case of trauma it is important to look for evidence of feto-maternal haemorrhage.