In the developed world eclampsia rates are about 1 in 2,000 deliveries due to improved medical care whereas in developing countries it can impact 10-30 times as many women. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are one of the most common causes of death in pregnancy. They resulted in 46,900 deaths in 2015. Around one percent of women with eclampsia die. The word eclampsia is from the Greek term for lightning. The first known description of the condition was by Hippocrates in the 5th century BC. Signs and symptoms
Eclampsia is a disorder of pregnancy characterized by seizures in the setting of pre-eclampsia. Most women have premonitory signs/symptoms in the hours before the initial seizure. Typically the woman develops hypertension before the onset of a convulsion (seizure). Other signs and symptoms to looks out for include:
Long-lasting (persistent) frontal or occipital headaches or thunderclap headaches) 
Visual disturbance (blurred vision, photophobia, diplopopia)
Photophobia (i.e. bright light causes discomfort)
Abdominal pain
Either in the epigastric region (the center of the abdomen above the navel, or belly-button)
And/or in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen (below the right side of the rib cage)
Altered mental status (confusion)Any of these symptoms may be present before or after the seizure. It is also possible for the woman to be asymptomatic prior to the onset of the seizure. Other cerebral signs that may precede the convulsion include nausea, vomiting, headaches, and cortical blindness.
In Call the Midwife, a medical drama television series set in London in the 1950s and 1960s, the character (in series 1, episode 4) named Margaret Jones is struck with pre-eclampsia, ultimately proceeding from a comatose condition to death. The term "toxemia" was also used for the condition, in the dialogue. In House M.D., a medical drama television series set in the U.S., Dr. Cuddy, the hospital director, adopts a baby whose teenage mother dies from eclampsia and had no other parental figures available. In The Lemon Drop Kid, the main characters wife dies of eclampsia shortly after giving birth to a boy. References
External links

Eclampsia at Curlie