Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The placenta and fetal membranes expelled from the uterus following birth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which is expelled from the uterus after the birth of a child. It includes the placenta, part of the umbilical cord, and the membranes of the ovum. Also called secundines.
  • noun A posthumous birth; a birth occurring after the father's last will, or after his death: used as a translation of agnatio in Roman law.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) The placenta and membranes with which the fetus is connected, and which come away after delivery.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The placenta and other material expelled via the birth canal following childbirth or parturition in mammals.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the placenta and fetal membranes that are expelled from the uterus after the baby is born

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From after- +‎ birth (in the sense of delivery). Cognate with Danish efterbyrd ("afterbirth"), Swedish efterbörd ("afterbirth"). Compare also afterburden, afterburthen.

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Examples

  • The placenta is also called the afterbirth; however, birthing the placenta is an important part of the process of birth.

    The Official Lamaze® Guide Judith Lothian RN 2010

  • The placenta (sometimes called afterbirth) connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall and supplies the fetus with oxygen and food.

    RedOrbit News - Technology 2010

  • The placenta (sometimes called afterbirth) connects the developing fetus to the uterine wall and supplies the fetus with oxygen and food.

    RedOrbit News - Technology 2010

  • The placenta, often called afterbirth, is no afterthought she says, but a real tool for future health care.

    unknown title 2009

  • The "afterbirth" goes in the "garbage can" anyway and it is full of usable stem cells!

    Are Progressives the New Moderates? 2005

  • People can get infected through contact with infected materials such as afterbirth, aborted fetuses and milk.

    Chapter 19 1994

  • In the mare the _retention of the fetal envelopes_ or "afterbirth" is commonly due to the muscles of the womb not contracting properly following birth.

    Common Diseases of Farm Animals R. A. Craig

  • For the calend mumming; the extraordinary and obscene Modranicht; the cake in honour of Mary's "afterbirth", condemned (692) at the Trullan Council, canon 79; the Tabulæ Fortunæ

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913

  • This comes away as the "afterbirth" at parturition; at the same time, the part of the mucous lining of the womb that has united inseparably with the chorion is torn away; hence it is called the decidua ( "falling-away membrane"), and also the

    The Evolution of Man — Volume 1 Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel 1876

  • LABOR seems completed with the expulsion of the child, the one act upon which the efforts of the accoucheur and the expectations of the patient have centred, the culmination of hours of suffering and anxiety; both feel as if their work were completed, and but little thought is given by either to the remaining afterbirth which is usually expelled without much suffering to the mother, and if nature be not interfered with, rarely calls for any exertion on the part of the attendant.

    Labor Among Primitive Peoples 1884

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