An evaluation of prophylactic penicillin administration to parturient women

Abstract

T HE effectiveness of penicillin in combating postpartum infections has suggested its use prophylactically during labor. The drug has already been used by Ode11 andPlassl in the control of intrapartum infections with considerable benefit to both mother and child. On the basis of these casual observations, it, seemed advisable to learn more accurately if penicillin administration during labor and the early puerperium would produce a significant reduction in the number of puerperal fevers. This study was directed at ascertaining this information by means of controlled experimental use of the drug. The patients were delivered in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the State University of Iowa.Hospitals between Feb. 3,1947, and Feb. 1,1948. So far as was practicable, alternate patients as determined by the delivery room nurse received prophylactic penicillin” according to a predetermined schedule. The only patients excluded were those delivered by the abdominal route and those receiving penicillin therapeutically prior to the onset of labor. All patients were delivered under similar delivery room technique by medical students, residents, or the senior staff. Postpartum temperatures were taken by mouth every four hours (excluding 2:00 A.M.) during labor and the postpartum stay, which averaged from six to nine days.