Parity (medicine)

In medicine, parity is a technical term that refers to the number of times a woman or female animal has given birth. A woman who has given birth a particular number of times is referred to as para 0, para 1, para 2, para 3 and so on.


 * A woman who has never completed a pregnancy beyond 20 weeks is referred to as being nulliparous, a nullipara or para 0.


 * A woman in her first pregnancy can also be referred to as being primipara which can be shortened to primip.


 * Biparous or bipara are sometimes used as synonyms for para 2.


 * A woman who has given birth two or more times is referred to as multiparous or just as a multip. The term multiparous can also describe a birth of more than one offspring at once, in contrast to a uniparous birth of one offspring.


 * Grand multipara refers to a (grand multiparous) woman who has given birth five or more times.

Parity is recorded in the format, T-P-A-L:
 * T : is the number of term births
 * P : is the number preterm births
 * A : is the number of abortions (spontaneous or induced)
 * L : is the number of living children.

For example, parity of a woman who has given birth at term once and has had one miscarriage would be recorded as P 1-0-1-1. This notation is not standardized and can lead to misinterpretations.

Term births are those occurring at 37 weeks or beyond. Preterm births are those that occur before 37 weeks.