Fetal Mortality in the Toxemias of Pregnancy

During recent years there has undoubtedly developed an increasing tendency to view the various toxemias of pregnancy with greater concern than was hitherto the rule excepting in the case of eclampsia. In the latter condition the immediate maternal mortality has always been sufficiently high so that all forms of therapy have concerned the mother, and the outcome to the child has received little regard. Such a course of procedure, however, has not pertained to the other toxemias of pregnancy, and it has been a rather general custom to treat such cases by palliative means until the pregnancy reached term or the child attained a definite period of viability. More recently the wisdom of such a procedure has been seriously questioned. It is generally agreed that chronic nephritis is definitely aggravated by pregnancy, the severity of the condition after pregnancy is much advanced over that pertaining before it, and the amount