A Hospital- Based Study about Antibiotic Therapy: Among Pregnant Women in the Third Trimester and in the Peripartum Period

Antibiotics are one of the most commonly prescribed medicines for pregnant women. They have been extensively used during the previous years, which ultimately led to a panoply of undesirable and harmful side effects. Unfortunately, only few data have been collected concerning the use of antibiotics during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and in the peripartum period. The available data are mostly collected out of monitoring networks because of the lack of studies that are conducted on those women. The present data concerning the safety of penicillin, cephalosporins, macrolides and quinolones with reference to the risk for preterm birth, low birth weight or even delivering children with small gestational age (SGA) are reassuring. So far, no study has shown a link between the gestational exposition to these antibiotics and the statistically- significant increase of the undesirable pregnancy risks. These harmful effects urge us to requestion the prescription of antibiotics and the recommendation of antibiotic therapy in general. Indeed, both in the cases of prelabor rupture membranes (PROM) and in the uterine revision the use of antibiotics has been proven inefficient, which suggests a restriction in their prescription in these two cases. More than half of the women who gave birth in our maternity center had consumed antibiotics during pregnancy, childbirth or in the post- partum period, which might explain the emergence of antibiotics resistance in our country.