I am 25 weeks pregnant and got a bad case of the flu. I now have an upper respiratory infection and my doctor wants to treat it with antibiotics. She has assisted at over 1,000 births and is currently teaching in the nurse-midwifery program at the University of Minnesota. Most upper respiratory infections are viral in origin and antibiotics will have no effect. The medical community is trying to reduce the frequency of prescriptions for antibiotics as well as choose types which are less broad in their application.
Microbial resistance poses a major threat to the public health and to future generations.
We have known for years that babies whose mother receive certain antibiotics are at higher risk for fungal or yeast infections after birth as well as dehydration from drug induced diarrhea. Healthy full term babies usually do well despite these occurrences, but stressed or preterm babies often do not. Babies who were exposed to these medications had a decreased ability to fight off infection. Almost half of them were resistant to Ampicillin, a commonly used broad spectrum antibiotic. Protocols do vary from site to site but routine antibiotics are generally given to mothers in labor if they have had a positive culture for group B beta strep during their pregnancy or if they are in preterm labor.