Pseudo pregnancy and labour.

Date:
1934
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Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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Credit

Pseudo pregnancy and labour. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

About this work

Description

An interesting record of a case of pseudo-cyesis which went into pseudo-labour. The female patient's history is given; menstruation halted due to the menopause, but the patient believed she was pregnant. A pseudo-pregnancy continued for nine months and resulted in a pseudo-labour. 1 segment.

Publication/Creation

England, 1934.

Physical description

1 encoded moving image (6.27 min.) : silent, black and white

Duration

00:06:27

Contents

Segment 1 The intertitles give a detailed history of the patient, explaining that she is 45-years-old and 'highly-strung and imaginative'. The patient believed she was pregnant after going through the menopause and her abdomen increased progressively in size. When the pseudo-labour began, a doctor and nurse were called and the patient told them her waters had broken and that she was having contractions. The abdomen appeared characteristic of a pregnancy at term, with what looked like strong foetal movements. However, a vaginal examination showed that the patient was not in labour or pregnant. Ether anaesthetic was administered and the patient's abdomen became lax. The patient was very shocked. The waters breaking was in fact the patient emptying her bladder. The intertitles note that the chief interest of this case is the movement of the abdominal muscles, which were produced by subconscious suggestion. The patient is then shown. Her abdomen and breasts are seen, and the movement of the abdominal muscles is shown. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:06:27:06 Length: 00:06:27:06

Creator/production credits

Produced by H.B. Whitehouse and the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Birmingham.

Terms of use

Open with advisory.
CC-BY-NC

Copyright note

British Medical Association

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