Toxemias of Pregnancy

Abstract

T HE toxemias of pregnancy are still one of the three majo causes of maternal death, just as they have been throughout history. While maternal mortality statistics reflect the improvements brought about in the control and treatment of obstetric infection and hemorrhage, there has been no proportionate improvement in regard to pregnancy toxemias. Even though the over-all maternal mortality rate has decreased during the last ten years, the toxemias of late pregnancy still kill the same percentage of mothers dying from all obstetric causes as it did ten years ago. The over-all decrease in maternal mortality has perhaps initiated a false sense of security, and this may well have been a factor in considering toxemia of pregnancy as not too important. While the toxemias of pregnancy themselves may not be the immediate cause of death, they may have been the originating factor that has contributed to deaths ascribed to causes other than toxemia. Such conditions are abruptio placentae, some intrapartum or postpartum hemorrhage, cerebral hemorrhage, pulmonary edema, and thrombophlebitis, as well as some deaths from anesthesia where the wrong anesthetic agent was chosen or perhaps the wrong method of delivery was used for a severely toxic patient.