AMNIOCENTESIS

[noun] [plural] amniocenteses - the removal with a needle of a small amount of the liquid that surrounds a baby in the mother's womb in order to examine the baby's conditionAmniocentesis involves extracting a small amount of amniotic fluid (= liquid surrounding the baby) and analysing foetal cells within for evidence of abnormality. [U]When I was pregnant with my third child I was offered an amniocentesis (test) because I was forty. [C]