Definition of "puerperal" [pu•er•per•al]

• Relating to, connected with, or occurring during childbirth or the period immediately following childbirth. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "All of these women were attacked with different forms of what is commonly called puerperal fever."
• "Under the expression puerperal fever are grouped very different diseases, 7 but all appearing to be the result of the growth of common organisms which by their presence infect the pus naturally formed on injured surfaces, which spread by one means or another, by the blood or the lymphatics, to one or another part of the body, and there induce morbid changes varying with the condition of the parts, the nature of the parasite, and the general constitution of the subject."
• "In contrast, at the midwife-staffed clinic, about 4% of the women died of childbed fever also called puerperal fever."