Antibiotics could halve sepsis risk in new mothers
NEW mothers who have an assisted birth should all be given antibiotics to halve their risk of sepsis, a major study has found.
Giving women a preventative dose of antibiotics as a matter of course would cut maternal infections by 7,000 a year in the UK, research shows.
Experts said the NHS and the World Health Organisation should update their guidelines so women routinely receive antibiotics if they have an assisted vaginal birth. This is when forceps or a vacuum device called a ventouse suction cup are used to help deliver the baby.
One in eight births in England are currently assisted, around 85,000 a year. One in five of these women go on to develop an infection.
However, only one in ten women developed an infection if they were given antibiotics straight after childbirth, scientists at the University of Oxford found.
The study, published in The Lancet, looked at 3,420 women who gave birth in 27 UK hospitals.
They were split into two groups, with the first given a single dose of intravenous amoxicillin, a type of penicillin, within six hours of the birth. The rest were given a placebo.
Data showed that infections halved among the group who received antibiotics, and cases of sepsis reduced by 56 per cent. Only 11 per cent of the 1,619 women who received amoxicillin got an infection, compared to 19 per cent of the 1,606 women in the placebo group. There were 11 cases of sepsis in the antibiotic group compared with 25 cases in the placebo group.
Sepsis – a violent immune response which attacks the body’s major organs – is the biggest cause of maternal death in the UK.
The study also found that giving new mothers a preventative dose of penicillin caused the overall use of antibiotics to drop by 17 per cent because fewer developed infections that required repeated doses. Researchers also said that a policy of giving all women in this group antibiotics would save the NHS £52.60 per birth. They found the total average costs six weeks after birth was £102.50 in the antibiotic group compared to £155.10 for those given the placebo.
The study found that women given antibiotics had less pain and less chance of stitches getting infected or bursting.
Lead researcher Professor Marian Knight, from the University of Oxford, said: ‘These findings highlight the urgent need to change current … antibiotic guidelines.
‘Almost one in five women develop an infection after assisted vaginal delivery and our results show this could be reduced by almost half.’
Women who have a caesarean in NHS hospitals are given antibiotics, but the drugs are not routinely given for any other type of delivery.
The Daily Mail has been campaigning to improve sepsis care and awareness since 2016.
Dr Ron Daniels, of the UK Sepsis Trust, said: ‘Women who have needed assistance during childbirth are at particular risk of developing infective complications and it is vital that we deliver preventative antibiotics to this vulnerable group.’