Dictionary

puerpera en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /pjuˈɜː.pə.ɹə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /pjuˈɝ.pəɹ.ə/ (General-American)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin puerpera (“woman in labor or childbed”), substantive of puerperus (“parturient, bringing forth children”), from puer (“child, boy”) + pariō (“to bring forth, bear”) + -us (adjectival suffix).

Meanings

1. A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
   • Abdominal ultrasound of the puerpera usually does not require a full bladder, because the enlarged uterus directly abuts the anterior abdominal wall and can be scanned without difficulty. 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:
   • Since one of the principal reasons for keeping the puerpera in a recumbent posture is avoidance of strain upon relaxed and weakened supporting structures by a large heavy uterus, the length of the stay in bed is not made a matter of routine 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:
   • I saw a very serious hemorrhage result from relaxation of the uterus on the eleventh day when the puerpera had been frightened by a domestic quarrel. 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:
   • A statistically significant circadian rhythm for urine volume was revealed in 6 of 10 pregnant women in the first trimester and in 6 of 9 puerperas on the 7th puerperal day. 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, editors, Chronobiology 1982-1983:
2. (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
   • "I must acknowledge, if Kolletschka's disease and the disease from which I saw so many puerperae die, are identical, then in the puerperae it must be produced by the self-same engendering cause, which produced it in Kolletschka." 1860, Henry E. Brady, David Collier, quoting Ignaz Semmelweis, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 224:
   • An often proved Remedy to bring away what is, or should not be left in the Womb of a Puerpera, though it were Part of a dead Child. 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:
   • Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean". 1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:
   • With the exception of the very nearest, — for instance, the husband and the mother of the puerpera, — visitors should be kept away until she has been out of bed for a few days, and even then admitted only in small numbers and one at a time. 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:

Forms

Deriveds

puerperal

Translations (8)

it puerpera (woman undergoing puerperium) · tr loğusa (woman undergoing puerperium) · grc λεχώ (woman undergoing puerperium) · de Wöchnerin (woman undergoing puerperium) · es puérpara (woman undergoing puerperium) · fr puerpère (woman undergoing puerperium) · el λεχώνα (woman undergoing puerperium) · pl położnica (woman undergoing puerperium)