puerperal fever

noun

Pathology.

1. a systemic bacterial infection of the endometrium characterized by fever, rapid heartbeat, uterine tenderness, and malodorous discharge, chiefly occurring in women after childbirth, usually as the result of unsterile obstetric procedures.

puerperal fever

noun

1. a serious, formerly widespread, form of blood poisoning caused by infection contracted during childbirth

Word History and Origins

Origin of puerperal fever¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

Semmelweis, once described as a “savior of mothers,” discovered that cases of puerperal fever could be significantly cut by washing hands before surgery.

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In 1847, he hypothesized that puerperal fever was spread by doctors carrying “cadaverous particles” from the deadhouse to the obstetrics ward at Vienna’s General Hospital.

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He writes of the hospital’s function in times of plague: yellow fever, cholera, ­puerperal fever, tuberculosis, swine flu, AIDS, even Ebola.

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It was this defect which gave to the advocates of the specificity of puerperal fever their real importance.

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B. Wales, Jr., of Iowa City, died on the 17th inst., of puerperal fever, having previously lost her calf.

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