The above lists of dressings and articles for the baby can be considerably modified and still be satisfactory. The leaflet of “Advice for Mothers” issued by the Maternity Centre Association, New York City (see p. 429), gives a somewhat curtailed list of equipment which proves to be adequate and within the means of most of the patients with whom the Association works. It is usually a good plan for the nurse to advise the patient to have her dressings ready by about the end of the seventh calendar month, and the layette by the end of the eighth month. A baby born before this time would probably be so frail that it would be wrapped in cotton and not require the clothes ordinarily prepared for a full-term baby. CHAPTER IX COMPLICATIONS AND ACCIDENTS OF PREGNANCY The prenatal care which was outlined in an earlier chapter becomes more impressive when one considers the disasters which it is designed to prevent. And the nurse will be more eager and able to watch her patient intelligently, and instruct her convincingly, if she appreciates and understands something of the conditions which she is helping to avert. She will give more effective nursing care, too, when complications do occur, if she gives it understandingly. In the toxemias, particularly, the importance of the nursing care looms large, for it is painstaking attention to details that makes this care so nearly a matter of life or death to the patient. In considering the complications of pregnancy, the nurse in training needs a reminder that hospital experience is likely to give her an exaggerated idea of the relative frequency with which they occur. This is due to the fact that most maternity patients in hospitals are there because they are known to be abnormal in some way, or because they are pregnant for the first time, and first pregnancies are more likely to end in difficult and complicated labors than later ones. The vast majority of cases run practically uncomplicated courses, for pregnancy, labor and the puerperium are normal physiological processes. It is extremely serious, however, to allow them to become abnormal. Watchfulness throughout pregnancy, then, in the interest of preventing disaster, cannot be too insistently advocated. Some complications that are watched for during pregnancy are peculiar to that condition alone, and these may be divided into three general groups: =1. The premature terminations of pregnancy=, which are designated as abortions, miscarriages and premature labors. =2. Ante-partum hemorrhages=, due to either a placenta prævia or a premature separation of a normally implanted placenta, the latter being termed “accidental hemorrhage.” =3. The toxemias=, including pernicious vomiting, pre-eclamptic toxemia, eclampsia and possibly nephritic toxemia, though this condition is not invariably associated with pregnancy.