The Effect of Toxaemia of Pregnancy upon the Foetus and Newborn Child

There exists a widespread impression that the infants of mothers suffering from toxaemia of pregnancy have a less than normal prospect of surviving the newborn period, and that if they survive their progress is less satisfactory than that of infants born of healthy women. There is also a tendency to attribute, somewhat vaguely, post-natal symptoms in these infants to the maternal toxaemia. The rather scanty literature is not very informative with regard to the prospects of survival of liveborn infants of toxaemic mothers, though numerous authors have emphasiz the increased likelihood of foetal death or premature birth. Tunis (1928) considered that direct transmission of eclampsia was unimportant as a cause of foetal death, and concluded that prematurity was the major factor, associated with a greater risk of intra-uterine asphyxia. Strau;h (1939) also com- mented on the high foetal mortality, which he ascrible in part to prematurity, in part to placental damage, and in part to the asphyxia produced by the maternal convulsions. He argued in favour of the occurrence of neonatal eclampsia, quoting previous authors in support of this. Peckham (1933) analysd the foetal mortality and found it to be directly proportional to the severity and duration of the toxaemia, and inversely proportional to the duration of pregnancy at the time of onset of the toxaemia. He included nephritic cases and found that the mortality was much higher amongst the infants of nephritics than in those of non- nprtics.