Prevalence of postpartum infections: a population-based observational study

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence of postpartum infections among women giving birth during 1 year in a population-based observational/questionnaire study at seven hospitals in the southeast region of Sweden. Of the women >99% (n = 11,124) received a questionnaire to inquire if they had endometritis, mastitis, or wound, urinary tract or any other infection within 2 months postpartum and whether they received antibiotics for this. Prevalence rates for infections and antibiotic treatment were estimated. The response rate was 60.1%. At least one infectious episode was reported by 10.3% of the women and 7.5% had received antibiotics. The prevalence for infections with and without antibiotics were, respectively, mastitis 4.7% and 2.9%, urinary tract infection 3.0% and 2.4%, endometritis 2.0% and 1.7%, wound infection 1.8% and 1.2%. There was no inter-county difference in infection prevalence. Clinical postpartum infections in a high-resource setting are relatively common.

Keywords: Infections; endometritis; mastitis; postpartum; urinary tract infection; wound infection.