Antiseptic birth canal cuts perinatal infections
A study of nearly 7,000 pregnant women shows that cleansing the birth canal with an inexpensive antiseptic solution dramatically reduces post-birth infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, according to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. The research report was published in the July 26, 1997, issue of the British Medical Journal.
"We found that washing the birth canal with a very safe solution 0.25% chlorhexidine in sterile water at each vaginal examination before delivery, and then wiping the babies with the solution after delivery, significantly reduced postpartum infectious problems in both mothers and babies," says co-author Paolo Miotti, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and medical officer in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Division of AIDS. Infant deaths related to sepsis, or bacteria in the bloodstream, were reduced three-fold.
Chlorhexidine has a long track record of safety with no adverse side effects. The cost of the antiseptic solution used in this study and the cotton to apply it was less than 10 cents per patient.
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