CONVULSIONS. (Eclampsia)
Categories:
Obstetrics or Midwifery
All forms of convulsions may occur during
pregnancy. They may occur during pregnancy and during labor. These are
usually the result of kidney trouble. The attacks occur most often during
the last three months of pregnancy. Their frequency is one to three
hundred to one to five hundred cases. It occurs oftener in the first
pregnancy, three to one.
Treatment. Inhalation of chloroform to control the convulsion. Mor
hine
in one-half grain dose can be given if no chloroform is handy. Place the
patient in a hot water or vapor bath, or wrap blankets wrung out of hot
water around her, and pile the bedding on until a profuse sweat is
started. The sweating aids in eliminating the poison. Change the hot wet
blankets as often as necessary. If the convulsions do not cease the womb
must be emptied of its contents. If the convulsions occur during labor
they should be treated in the same manner. The mortality then is about
seven per cent. Chloral hydrate in thirty to sixty grain doses in three
ounces of water may be injected into the rectum if the other remedies
fail.