Individual Details

Death

Puerperal eclampsia may be defined as a disease peculiar to the pregnant woman, and almost invariably manifesting its presence by convulsions of a tonic or clonic character, accompanied by unconsciousness and followed by coma or sleep. It may occur either during gestation, immediately before, during, or after confinenient, and may be extremely slight in the manifest symptoms, or so terrible and grave as to kill immediately or within a few hours of the occurrence of the first convulsion. It is most usual to occur in the latter part of pregnancy, rarely before the fifth month, and verv rarely before the fourth month; generally a short time before term, less frequently in labour, and least frequently after labour. Its frequency varies from 1 in 500 cases to 1 in 250, according to various tables. About 70 to 80 percent of all cases occur in primiparae. It is very difficult to estimate the incidence exactly, because most figures are taken from clinics to which patients are sent on account of the convulsions, whereas in ordinary private practice thev would be treated at home. We know that 80 percent or between 75 and 80 percent according to various statistics, of those women attacked by the disease recover, and it is important to note that thiey recover under all kinds of treatment. Therefore there is a mortality of about 20 or 25 percent a terrible mortality in any disease