RELATIONSHIP OF THE HORMONES TO THE TOXEMIAS OF PREGNANCY

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Abstract
The alterations that take place in the maternal physiology with the onset of pregnancy may be ascribed to one cause or to a combination of causes. The more important include the pressure effects of the enlarging abdominal mass, the changes produced on the maternal circulation by the development of the vascular system of the placenta, the demands made by the growing ovum and by the reproductive organs of the mother for nutritive materials and perhaps the need for disposal of certain waste products or antibodies produced in the developing fetus. Finally, there are the so-called sex hormones formed in the placenta which from a period early in pregnancy are found in the maternal body fluids in concentrations far above anything ever observed in the nonpregnant state. Specific toxemia, or "hypertensive albuminuria." is a disease which apparently can develop only in women and only under the peculiar conditions of pregnancy. It

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