The uterus also becomes softer in tubal pregnancy, and the cervix softens somewhat, though not so much as in a uterine pregnancy.
If the woman and the fetus survive the many dangers that accompany the progress of tubal gestation, the development of the fetus will go on to full term, and then the phenomenon of spurious labor will come on.
In spurious labor there are a series of periodical pains that resemble those of normal labor. The pains may last from a few hours to several days. They may cease, and reappear after varying intervals.
Hemorrhage usually takes place from the uterus. After the spurious labor the uterine discharge may be of the same character as that seen after normal labor.
It is probable that the fetus always dies after spurious labor. The liquor amnii is absorbed, the gestation-sac shrinks, and changes take place in the fetus similar to those already referred to. It may become mummified or converted into adipocere or a lithopedion. In this condition it may remain in the abdomen for many years. A mummified fetus that had been carried for fifty years has been removed post-mortem from a woman aged eighty-two.
Rarely, after spurious labor the gestation-sac ruptures and the fetus is discharged into the peritoneum, the vagina, or the large intestine, whence it is born through the anus.
The =symptoms= of tubal pregnancy are in some cases similar in all respects to those of normal uterine pregnancy. In extremely rare cases the woman has reached full term in ignorance of any unusual condition. Usually, however, the early occurrence of some of the accidents of tubal gestation attracts her attention. Before such accidents or complications arise there are most frequently no subjective symptoms to excite any suspicion of the peculiar form of pregnancy. Changes in the skin, in the nipples, in the nervous and circulatory systems, and in the gastro-intestinal tract may resemble those of normal pregnancy, and are subject to the same variations.
Mammary changes accompanied by the secretion of milk occur in tubal pregnancy. These changes are, however, less pronounced than in uterine gestation. The vagina may undergo changes similar to those of normal pregnancy; it becomes soft, relaxed, and altered in color, and pulsation of vessels may be felt in the walls.