different between puerperium vs postpartum

English

Etymology

From Latin puerperium (“childbed, childbirth”), noun form of puerperus (“of a woman in labour”), adjectival form of puerpera (“a woman in her childbed”), from puer (“boy”) + pari? (“I bear”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pu?.??pi?.?i.?m/, /?pu?.??pi?.?i.?m/

Noun

puerperium (plural puerperia)

1. (obstetrics) The period of time lasting around a month immediately following childbirth, when the mother’s uterus shrinks back to its prepartum state.
   • 1921, Robert Bing & Charles Lewis Allen, A Textbook of nervous diseases for students and practicing physicians: In Thirty Lectures, p84

     As exciting causes, psychic traumata, exposure to cold, the puerperium, excesses, have been brought forward.

Related terms

• antepartum
• parous
• postpartum
• puerperal

Translations

Anagrams

• pure-impure

Latin

Etymology

puerpera +? -ium

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /pu.er?pe.ri.um/, [pu?r?p??i???]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /pu.er?pe.ri.um/, [pu?r?p???ium]

Noun

puerperium n (genitive puerperi? or puerper?); second declension

1. childbirth, delivery, childbed, confinement, lying-in

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Related terms

• puer

References

• puerperium in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

English

Alternative forms

• post-partum

Etymology

1844, from Latin post (“after”) + partum (“giving birth”), form of partus, from pari? (“I give birth”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to bring forth”).

Adjective

postpartum (not comparable)

1. (of a mother) after giving birth

Usage notes

While postpartum narrowly refers to a mother after giving birth, the similar term postnatal maybe be used either to contrast, referring to the baby after being born, or may be used synonymously, also referring to the mother.

Synonyms

• postnatal (of a mother)

Antonyms

• antepartum
• postnatal (of a child)

Derived terms

• postpartum depression
• postpartum hemorrhage

Related terms

• parous
• puerperal
• puerperium

Translations

Noun

postpartum (uncountable)

1. The period immediately following childbirth.
   • 2019, Maranda Bower, Supported in Postpartum: Stories of Rejuvenating Wisdom (page 54)

     Postpartum was hard. When I first thought about having a baby, postpartum wasn't on my mind at all. I was just excited to have a brand-new baby that I could call mine.

References