Intrauterine perfusion failure can cause cerebral malformations. We investigated the effect of transient maternal hypotension on newborn rat brain by inducing hypovolemic hypotension for 2.5 h during early embryonic day 7 (E7) or late (E15) gestation in pregnant rats. We found an increase in the number of TUNEL-positive cells within the periventricular germinative matrix in pups subjected to early gestational hypotension and within the cerebral cortex in those subjected to late gestational hypotension in comparison to sham control animals. These results suggest that episodic maternal hypovolemic hypotension may affect the fetal brain, and apoptotic mechanisms may mediate this effect.