The Problems of Fœtal Post‐maturity and Prolongation of Pregnancy.

Post-maturity and Prematurity. SOME twenty years ago one of the present writers (Ka1lantyne)l contributed ;o this JOUKNAL an article entitled “ The Problem of the l’ost-mature Infant.” H e had previously dealt else\\ here with “ The Problem of the PremaLure Infant ” ; and he endeavoured to shorn tiou different thc t>, o problems were. The post-mature infant, on account o f its prolonged sojourn in the uterus, has in most cases grown so large and has become so ossified in head and shoulders as t o make birth alire and uninjured a difficult matter ; the problem is to c o m p a s safe delivery, and the solution is to induce labour a t term and s(o prevent post-maturity, or , failing this, to perform Cresarean section when there is reason to believe that the f e t a l head and shoulders cannot traverse the mother’s pelvis without serious damage. The premature infant, on the other hand, is commonly born alive, its small size and ossification making delivery easy ; its organs and tissurs, howwcr, are not anatomically and physiologically capable of meeting the stress of the post-natal environment, and it is apt to perish soon after birth; the problem in its case is to maintain life in exacting surroundings, and the solution again is to carr! on ante-natal life for a few weeks longer, or, failing this, to imitate so far as possible intra-uterine conditions outside the mother’s hodr by providing c o u ~ ~ u s e accommodation,