GC: n

S: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7921 (last access: 22 August 2014); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1088248/ (last access: 7 August 2015); DORLAND.

N: 1. puerperal fever, also called childbed fever, infection of some part of the female reproductive organs following childbirth or abortion. Cases of fever of 100.4 °F (38 °C) and higher during the first 10 days following delivery or miscarriage are notifiable to the civil authority in most developed countries, and the notifying physician clarifies the diagnosis later, if possible. Puerperal infection is most commonly of the raw surface of the interior of the uterus after separation of the placenta (afterbirth), but pathogenic organisms may also affect lacerations of any part of the genital tract. By whatever portal, they can invade the bloodstream and lymph system to cause septicemia (blood poisoning), cellulitis (inflammation of cellular tissue), and pelvic or generalized peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal lining).
2. Fever that lasts for more than 24 hours within the first 10 days after a woman has had a baby. Puerperal fever is due to an infection, most often of the placental site within the uterus. If the infection involves the bloodstream, it constitutes puerperal sepsis.
3. Puerperal fever has gone by a number of different names including childbirth fever, childbed fever and postpartum fever. In Latin a “puerpera” is a woman in childbirth since “puer” means child and “parere” means to give birth. The puerperium is the time immediately after the delivery of a baby.

S: 1. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/puerperal-fever (last access: 7 August 2015). 2 & 3. http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7921 (last access: 22 August 2014).

SYN: 1. childbed fever. 2. postpartum fever. 3. puerperal infection.

S: 1. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/science/puerperal-fever (last access: 7 August 2015); TERMIUMPLUS. 2. TERMIUMPLUS. 3. http://www.healthline.com/health/puerperal-infection#Overview1 (last access: 7 August 2015).

CR: childbed, childbirth.