Moro reflex
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Named after Austrian physician and pediatrician Ernst Moro (1874–191), who was the first in western medicine to describe the reflex.
Noun[edit]
Moro reflex (plural Moro reflexes)
- (physiology) A normal primitive reflex elicited by a sudden stimulus, involving abduction and extension of the arms, followed by adduction; it develops between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation and disappears at 3–6 months of age.
- 2014 December 5, Marina Hyde, “Childbirth is as awful as it is magical, thanks to our postnatal ‘care’”, in The Guardian[1]:
- For reasons I shan’t bore you with, I got them to induce me at 39 weeks, at 10am, with the epidural going in first, and it was all a dream. […] But it was all over in time for my daughter to catch the Nigeria v Argentina World Cup game that evening, during which she seemed to reckon everything was miles offside. (Or was that just the Moro reflex?)
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “Moro reflex”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.