Bacteriuria in Pregnancy

Abstract

Summary Bacteriuria (defined as the presence of organisms on culture in a specimen of urine obtained by suprapubic bladder aspiration) was found in 132 (6.6 per cent) out of 2000 pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic. Bacteriuria was more frequent in the lower than the upper social classes, but was not related to the patient's age, parity or ethnic group. In 5 out of 18 patients with bacterial counts of lo4 or less per ml., spontaneous clearance of bacteriuria occurred. Of 186 patients who had further samples of urine examined during pregnancy after having a sterile urine on booking, only one developed a persistent infection de novo. Seventy‐nine of the original 2000 patients were seen in a second pregnancy. Twelve of these patients were infected (and treated) in the first pregnancy and 5 of them had bacteriuria in the second pregnancy; the other 67 patients had sterile urine in the first pregnancy and one of these had bacteriuria in a second pregnancy. Thirty per cent of the patients with bacteriuria had symptoms which were usually associated with urinary infection when they were first seen, but so did 25 per cent of the uninfected control patients. Neither bacteriuria nor recurrence of infection after treatment could be diagnosed by symptoms. Only 34 per cent of patients with symptoms after treatment had recurrent infection, and of those who did have recurrent infection 27 per cent had symptoms.