Pregnancy

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pregnancy \Preg"nan*cy\, n.
     1. The condition of being pregnant; the state of being with
        young.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Figuratively: The quality of being heavy with important


        contents, issue, significance, etc.; unusual consequence
        or capacity; fertility. --Fuller.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pregnancy
       n : the state of being pregnant; the period from conception to
           birth when a woman carries a developing fetus in her
           uterus [syn: {gestation}, {maternity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  88 Moby Thesaurus words for "pregnancy":
     abundance, appropriateness, auspiciousness, babyhood, beginnings,
     bigness, birth, bountifulness, brooding, chargedness, childhood,
     convenience, copiousness, covering, cradle, criticality,
     crucialness, expedience, expressiveness, exuberance, favorableness,
     fecundity, felicitousness, fertility, fitness, fittingness,
     freshman year, fructiferousness, fruitfulness, generousness,
     genesis, gestation, gravidity, gravidness, greatness, heaviness,
     inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency, incubation,
     incunabula, infancy, intelligibility, interpretability, loadedness,
     lushness, luxuriance, meaningfulness, meatiness, meetness,
     nascence, nascency, nativity, opportuneness, origin, origination,
     parturition, pithiness, plenteousness, plentifulness,
     procreativeness, productive capacity, productiveness, productivity,
     prolificacy, propitiousness, propriety, readability, richness,
     rightness, ripeness, seasonableness, sententiousness, significance,
     significancy, significantness, sitting, situation, suggestiveness,
     suitability, superabundance, swarmingness, teeming womb,
     teemingness, the family way, timeliness, youth
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PREGNANCY, med. jurisp. This is defined by medical writer; to be the state 
  of a female who has within her ovary or womb, a fecundated germ which 
  gradually becomes developed in the latter receptaale. Dunglison's Med. Diet. 
  h.t. 
       2. The subject may be considered with reference to the signs of 
  pregnancy; its duration; and the laws relating to it. 
       3.-Sec. 1. The fact that women sometimes conceal their state of 
  pregnancy in order to avoid disgrace, and to destroy their offspring in its 
  mature or immature state; and that in other cases to gratify the wishes of 
  relations, the desire to deprive the legal successor of his just claims, to 
  gratify their avarice by extorting money, and to avoid or delay execution, 
  pregnancy is pretended, renders it necessary that an inquiry should take 
  place to ascertain whether a woman has or has not been pregnant. 
       4. There are certain signs which usually indicate this state; these 
  have been divided into those which affect the system generally, and those 
  which affect the uterus. 
       5.-1. The changes observed in the system from conception and 
  pregnancy, are principally the following; namely, increased irritability of 
  temper, melancholy, a languid cast of countenance, nausea, heart-burn, 
  loathing of food, vomiting in the morning, an increased salivary discharge, 
  feverish neat, with emaciation and costiveness, occasionally depravity of 
  appetite, a congestion in the head, which gives rise to spots on the face, 
  to headache, and erratic pains in the face and teeth. The pressure of 
  increasing pregnancy, occasions protrusion of the umbilicus, and, sometimes, 
  varicose tumors or anasarcous swellings of the lower extremities. The 
  breasts also enlarge, an areola, or brown circle is observed around the 
  nipples, and a secretion of lymph, composed of milk and water, takes place. 
  It should be remembered that these do not occur in every pregnancy, but many 
  of them in most cases. 
       6.-2. The changes which affect the uterus, are, a suppression and 
  cessation of the menses; an augmentation in size of the womb, which becomes 
  perceptible between the eighth and tenth weeks; as time progresses, the 
  enlargement continues about the middle of pregnancy, the woman feels the 
  motion of the child, and this is called quickening. (q.v.) The vagina is 
  also subject to alteration, as its glands throw out more mucus, and 
  apparently prepare the parts for the passage of the foetus. Ryan's Med. Jur. 
  112, 113, 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 157, 158; 2 Dunglison's Human Physiology, 361. 
  These are the general signs of pregnancy; it will be proper to consider them 
  more minutely, though briefly, in detail. 
       7.-1. The expansion and enlargement of the abdomen. This sign is not 
  visible during the early months of pregnancy, and by art in the disposition 
  of the dress and the use of stays, it may be concealed for a much longer 
  period. The corpulency of the woman or the peculiarity of her form, may also 
  contribute to produce the same effect. In common cases, where there is no 
  such obstacle, this sign is generally manifest at the end of the fourth 
  month, and continues till delivery. But the enlargement may originate from 
  disease; from suppression or retention of the menses; tympanites; dropsy; or 
  schirrosity of the liver and spleen. Patient and assiduous investigation and 
  professional skill are requisite to pronounce as to this sign, and all these 
  may fail. Fodere, tome i. p. 443. Cyclop. of Practical Medicinae, h.t. 
  Cooper's Lect. vol. ii. p. 163. 
       8.-2. Change in the state of the breasts. They are said to grow 
  larger and more firm; but this enlargement occurs in suppressed menses, and 
  sometimes at the period of the cessation of the menses; and sometimes they 
  do not enlarge till after delivery. The dark appearance of the areola is no 
  safe criterion; and the milky fluid may occur without pregnancy. 
       9.-3. The suppression of the menses. Although this usually follows 
  conception, yet in some cases menstruation is carried on till within a few 
  weeks of delivery. When the suppression takes place, it is not always the 
  effect of impregnation; it may, and frequently does arise, from, disease. 
  Some medical authors, however, deem the suppression to be a never failing 
  consequence of conception. 
      10.-4. The loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, &c. Although attendant 
  upon pregnancy in many cases, are very equivocal signs. 
      11.-5. The motion of the foetus in the mother's womb. In the early 
  months of pregnancy this is wanting, but afterwards it can be ascertained. 
  In cases of concealed pregnancy it cannot be ascertained from the 
  declarations of the mother, and the examiner must discover it by other 
  means. When the foetus is alive, the sudden application of the hand, 
  immediately after it has been dipped in cold water, over the regions of the 
  uterus, will generally produce a motion of the foetus; but this is not an 
  infallible test, the foetus may be dead, or there may be twins; in the first 
  case, then, there will be no motion and in the latter, the motion is not 
  felt sometimes until a late period. Vide Quickening. 
      12.-6. Alteration in the state of the uterus. This is ascertained by 
  what is technically called the touch. This is an examination, made with the 
  hand of the examiner, of the uterus. 
      13.-7. By the application of auscultation to the impregnated uterus, 
  it is said certainty can be obtained. The indications of the presence of a 
  living foetus in the womb, as derived from auscultation, are two: 1. The 
  action of the foetal heart This is marked by double pulsations; that of the 
  foetus generally exceeds in frequency the maternal pulse. These pulsations 
  may be perceived at the fifth, or between the fifth and sixth months. Their 
  situation varies with that of the child. 2. The other auscultatory sign to 
  denote the presence of the foetus has been variously denominated the 
  placental bellows sound, the placental sound, and the utero placental 
  soufflet. It is generally agreed that its seat is in the enlarged vessels of 
  the portion of the uterus which is immediately connected with the placenta. 
  According to Laennec, it is an arterial pulsation perfectly isochronous with 
  the pulse of the mother, and accompanied by a rushing noise, resembling the 
  blast of a pair of a bellows. It commonly begins to be beard with the aid of 
  the stethoscope, (an instrument invented by Professor Laennec of Paris, for 
  examining the chest) at the end of the fourth month of pregnancy. In the 
  case of twins, Laennec detected the pulsation of two foetal hearts before 
  delivery, by means of this instrument. 
      14.-8. Another sign of pregnancy has been discovered, which is said by 
  M. Jaquemin never to fail. It is the peculiar dark color which the mucous 
  membrane of the vagina acquires during this state. It was only after an 
  examination of four thousand five hundred women that M. Jacquemin came to 
  the conclusion which be formed of the certainty of this sign. Parent 
  Duchatellet, De la Prostitution dans la ville de Paris, c, 3, Sec. 5. 
      15. It is, always difficult though perhaps not impossible to ascertain 
  the presence of the foetus, and on the other band, many of the signs which 
  would indicate such presence, have been known to fail. 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 
  ch. Chit. Med. Jur. b. t.; Ryan's Med. Jur. 112, 113; Allison's Princ. of 
  the Cr., Law of Scotl. ch. 3, p. 153; 1 Briand, Med. Leg. c. 3. 
      16.- Sec. 2. The duration of human pregnancy is not certain, and 
  probably is not the same in every woman. It may perhaps be safely stated 
  that forty weeks is the ordinary duration, though much discussion has taken 
  place among medico-legal writers on this subject, and opinions fluctuate 
  largely. 1 Beck's Med. Jur. 862. This is occasioned perhaps by the 
  difficulty of ascertaining the time from which this period begins to run. 
  Chit. Med. Jur. 409; Dewees, Midwifery, 125; 1 Paris & Fonb. 218, 230, 245; 
  2 Dunglison's Human Physiology, 362; Ryan's Med. Jur. 121; 1 Fodere, M4d. 
  Leg. Sec. 407-416. 
      17.-Sec. 3. The laws relating to pregnancy are to be considered, 
  first, in reference to the fact of pregnancy; and, secondly, in relation to 
  its duration. 
      18.-1. As to the fad of pregnancy. There are two cases where the fact 
  whether a woman is or has been pregnant is of importance; when it is 
  supposed she pretends pregnancy, and when she is charged with concealing it. 
      19.-1st. Pretended pregnancy may arise from two causes: the one when a 
  widow feigns herself with child, in order to produce a supposititious heir 
  to the estate. In this case in England the heir presumptive may have a writ 
  de ventre inspiciendo, to examine whether she be with child or not; and if 
  she be, to keep her under proper restraint until delivered; but if, upon 
  examination, the widow be found not pregnant, the presumptive heir shall be 
  admitted to the inheritance, though liable to lose it again on the birth of 
  a child within forty weeks from the death of the husband. 1 Bl. Com. 456; 
  Cro. Eliz. 566; 4 Bro. C. C. 90; 2 P. Wms. 591; Cox's C. C. 297. In the 
  civil law there was a similar practice. Dig. 25, 4. 
      20. The second cause of pretended pregnancy occurs when a woman has been 
  sentenced to death, for the commission of a crime. At common law, in case 
  this plea be made before execution, the court must direct a jury of twelve 
  matrons, or discreet women, to ascertain the fact, and if they bring in 
  their verdict quick with child, execution shall be staid generally till the 
  next session of the court, and so from session to session till either she be 
  delivered, or proves by the lapse of time, not to have been with child at 
  all. 4 Bl. Com. 394, 395; 1 Bay, 487. It is proper to remark that a verdict 
  of the matrons that the woman is pregnant is not sufficient, she must be 
  found to be quick with child. (q.v.) 
      21. Whether under the English law a woman would be hanged who could be 
  proved to be privement enceinte, beyond all doubt, is not certain; but in 
  this country, it is presumed if it could be made to appear, indubitably: 
  that the woman was pregnant, though not quick with child, the execution 
  would be respited until after delivery. Fatal errors have been made by 
  juries of matrons. A case occurred at Norwich in England in the month of 
  March, 1833, of a murderess who pleaded pregnancy. Twelve married women were 
  impanelled on the jury; after an hour's examination, they returned a verdict 
  that she was not quick with child. She was ordered for execution. 
  Fortunately three of the principal surgeons in the place, fearing some 
  error, waited upon the convict and examined her; they found her not only 
  pregnant, but quick with child. The matter was represented to the judge, who 
  respited the execution, and on the 11th day of July she was safely delivered 
  of a living child. London Medical Gazette, vol. xii. p. 24, 585. 
      22. In New York it is provided by legislative enactment, (2 Rev. Stat. 
  658,) that "if a female convict, sentenced to the punishment of death, be 
  pregnant, the sheriff shall summon a jury of six physicians, and shall give 
  notice to the district attorney, who shall have power to subpoena witnesses. 
  If, on such inquisition, it shall appear that the female is quick with 
  child, the sheriff shall suspend the execution, and transmit the inquisition 
  to the governor. Whenever the governor shall be satisfied that she is no 
  longer quick with child, he shall issue his warrant for execution, or 
  commute it, by imprisonment for life in the state prison." 
      23. By the laws of. Franco, "if a woman condemned to death declares 
  herself to be pregnant, and it is verified that she is pregnant, she shall 
  not suffer her punishment till after her delivery. Code Penal, art. 27. 
      24.-2d. Concealed pregnancy seldom takes place except for the criminal 
  purpose of destroying the life of the foetus in utero, or of the child 
  immediately after its birth. The extreme facility of extinguishing the 
  infant life, at the time, or shortly after birth,, and the experienced 
  difficulty of proving this unnatural crime, has induced the passage of laws, 
  in perhaps all the states, as well as in England and other countries, 
  calculated to facilitate the proof, land also to punish the very act of 
  concealment of pregnancy and death of the child, when, if born alive, it 
  would have been a bastard.  The English statute of 21 Jac. 1, c. 27, 
  required that any mother of such child who had endeavored to conceal its 
  birth, should prove, by one witness at least, that the child was actually 
  born dead; and for want of such proof it arrived at the forced conclusion 
  that the mother murdered it. But it was considered a blot upon even the 
  English code, and it was therefore repealed by  43 Geo. III. c. 58, s. 3. An 
  act of assembly  of Pennsylvania, of the 31st May, 1781, made the 
  concealment of the death of a bastard child conclusive evidence to convict 
  the mother of murder; which was repealed by the act of 5th of April, 1790, 
  s. 6, which declared that the constrained presumption that the child whose 
  death is concealed, was therefore murdered by the mother, shall not be 
  sufficient to convict the party indicted, without probable presumptive proof 
  is given that the child was born alive. The law was further modified by the 
  act of 22d of April, 1794, s. 18, which declares that the concealment of the 
  death of any such child shall not be conclusive evidence to convict the 
  party indicted of the murder of her child, unless the circumstances 
  attending it be such as shall satisfy the mind of the jury, that she did 
  willfully and maliciously troy take away the life of such a child. The last 
  mentioned act, section 17, punishes the concealment of the death of a 
  bastard child by fine and imprisonment. See, for the law of Connecticut on 
  the subject, 2 Swift's Digest, 296. See Alison's Principles of the Criminal 
  Law of Scotland, ch. 3. 
      26.-2. As to the duration of pregnancy. Lord Coke lays down the 
  peremptory rule that forty weeks is the longest time allowed by law for 
  gestation. Co. Litt. 123. There does not, however, appear to be any time 
  fixed by the law as to the duration of pregnancy. Note by Hargr. & Butler, 
  to 1 Inst. 123, b: 1 Rolle's Ab. 356, 1. 10; Cro. Jac. 541; Palm. 9. 
      27. The civil code of Louisiana provides that the child capable of 
  living, which is born before the one hundred and eightieth day after the 
  marriage, is not presumed to be the child of the husband; every child born 
  alive more than six months after conception, is presumed to be capable of 
  living. Art. 205. The same rule applies with respect to the child born three 
  hundred days after the dissolution of the marriage, or after sentence of 
  separation e and board. Art. 206. The Code Civil of France contains the 
  following provision. The child conceived during the marriage, has the 
  husband for its father. Nevertheless the husband may disavow the child, if 
  he can prove that during the time that has elapsed between the three 
  hundredth and the one hundred and eightieth before its birth he was 
  prevented either by absence, or in consequence of some accident, or on 
  account of some physical impossibility, from cohabiting with his wife. Art. 
  312. A child born before the one hundred and eightieth day after the 
  marriage cannot be disavowed by the husband in the following cases: 1. When 
  he had knowledge of the pregnancy before the marriage; 2. When he has 
  assisted in writing the act of birth, [a certificate stating the birth and 
  sex of the child, the time when born, &c. required by law to be filed with a 
  proper officer and recorded,] and when that act has been signed by him, or 
  when it contains his declaration that he cannot sign; 
       3. When the child is not declared capable of living. Art. 314. And the 
  legitimacy of a child born three hundred days after the dissolution of the 
  marriage may be contested. Art. 315.