Partum or Natal?
Published: 2021-10-11Partum or natal?
How can you describe the periods before, during, and after childbirth?
Actually, there are several ways to describe them, and while it doesn’t really matter which word we choose, it’s not so obvious which one we actually use.
Let’s look at the suffixes first. There are two English (or Latin) words that you can use to mean “giving birth”: partum and natal. Natal is a common English word and can be used alone, but partum is not even registered in most dictionaries. It tells a different story when they are used with the appropriate prefixes.
Technically speaking, there is a subtle difference between these words. For reference, let’s take a quick look at WHO Technical Consultation on Postpartum and Postnatal Care
6.3 Defining terms
The terms “postpartum period” and “postnatal period” are often used interchangeably but sometimes separately, when “postpartum” refers to issues pertaining to the mother and “postnatal” refers to those concerning the baby. The terms “antenatal”, “antepartum”, “intranatal” and “intrapartum” refer to issues pertaining to events before or during childbirth.
This is a clear rule and seems like a good one to follow. However, the actual usage seems to depend on the country as well. This article states that postpartum is more commonly used in the US and postnatal is more common in Australia and the UK.
What about prefixes? There are five main prefixes that can be used for these terms: pre-, ante-, intra-, peri-, post-.
You can use any of them, but unfortunately some of the combinations sound strange. Needless to say, this depends on the situation or context as well. (medical context or everyday context, etc.) How on earth can I choose the right suffix and prefix…?
I checked the number of results in the US search engines for each combination. At least as one reference…
| word | number |
|---|---|
| prepartum | 403,000 |
| antepartum | 1,820,000 |
| intrapartum | 1,780,000 |
| peripartum | 885,000 |
| postpartum | 31,200,000 |
| word | number |
|---|---|
| prenatal | 128,000,000 |
| antenatal | 36,400,000 |
| intranatal | 227,000 |
| perinatal | 21,000,000 |
| postnatal | 58,800,000 |