English

Noun

puerpera ‎(plural puerperas or puerperae)

1. (obstetrics) A woman undergoing puerperium; a woman whose uterus is still enlarged from pregnancy.
   • 1918, Joseph Bolivar De Lee, Principles and practice of obstetrics, page 813:

     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.

   • 1934, Karl Mathias Beierlein, Pamphlets and Reprints, page 350:

     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

   • 1984, Erhard Haus, Hugh F. Kabat, Chronobiology 1982-1983, S Karger Ag

     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.

   • 2011, Eberhard Merz, “Ultrasound in the Puerperium”, in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, volume 1, page 39:

     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.

2. (rare) A woman who has recently given birth.
   • 1731, Robert Boyle, Medicinal experiments, volume 3, page 6:

     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.

   • 1860, Ignaz Semmelweis, quoted in Henry E. Brady, David Collier, Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (ISBN 9781442203457), page 224

     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.

   • 1885, Hermann Heinrich Ploss, Max Bartels, Paul Bartels, translated by Eric John Dingwall, Woman: an historical, gynæcological and anthropological compendium, page 150:

     Among the ancient Iranians, the puerpera, like the menstruating woman, was regarded as "unclean".

   • 1907, Henry Jacques Garrigues, A Text-book of the science and art of obstetrics, page 243:

     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.

Italian

Noun

puerpera f ‎(plural puerpere)

1. A woman who has just given birth

Related terms

• puerperio

Latin

Etymology

From puer ‎(“boy, child”) + pariō ‎(“bear, give birth”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /puˈer.pe.ra/, [pʊˈɛr.pɛ.ra]

Noun

puerpera f ‎(genitive puerperae); first declension

1. a woman in labor or in childbed, a lying-in woman

Inflection

First declension.

Related terms

• puerperium
• puerperus

Descendants

• Translingual: Thiodina puerpera

References

• PUERPERA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)