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.