The 45th annual meeting of the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society (FNPS 2018) was held at Maastricht/Kerkrade (The Netherlands) from 24–27 June 2018. Prof. Dr. Wilfried Gyselaers was invited as a key speaker and held an interesting talk about ‘Maternal hemodynamics and its assessment in 2018 : the mother’s rebirth’. Pauline Dreesen was selected for oral presentation with her topic on ‘abnormal body fluid volume homeostasis in pregnancies complicated with hypertension or poor fetal growth’. Colleague Dorien Lanssens also attended the conference.