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Kaltrleder at a1. [1 77 1 observed i n their s tudy that i n
the majority of women (9 5 %) who develop postpartum h yp e r t e n­
sion, the onset of d i s ease is often in the f i r st week post ­
pa rtum wi t h on ly 5% more of t he cases de ve loping after the
second we e k. Th i s observat ion may not necessarily be true for
t h is study po pulation, but if we also consider that other
researchers have observed blood p r es s u r e elevations t o occur
i n the first postpartum week then this observation is more
l ike l y to be also true in this population [178,179] .
The time lapse i n the measurement of blood pressures i n
non -attenders is t herefor e n ot very l i kely t o have influenced
markedly the detection o f postpartum hypertension i n t hose
SUbjects. The r ate of the disorder reported here is be lieved
t o be the likely true rate In this study popu lation.
Thus with t he exception of the few rarer disorders such
as mas t i t i s, and pu e rp e r a l ps ychosis Which occur more
frequently i n tihe l ate r puerperium the r epor t ed occurrences
an d/or detection of d i s e a s e i n non-attenders were no t like ly
to differ markedly from that of clinic attendants and t he
effect of time b i a s on study results is Lfke Ly to be small.
IV. Al t hough attempts were made the r e duc e t he limitations t o
t he s t Udy of the lack of a pilot s urvey ne ce ss a r y t o fine t u ne
s tudy measuring instrume nts and methods , it is obv i ous that