Abstract

Aim and Objectives: to find out the prevalence of urinary tract infection among pregnant women and to study the frequency of type of pathogens isolated in urine among the pregnant women. Materials and Methods: Consecutive sampling was done to select pregnant women from the antenatal clinic. Willing pregnant women were screened for the eligibility and then informed about the purpose of the study and provided with an information sheet in the local language. An informed written consent was obtained thereafter. A semi-structured, pretested interview schedule having sociodemographic details, obstetric history, medical history, and symptoms of UTI was administered to the selected pregnant women. A midstream urine sample was collected from the selected pregnant women in sterile wide mouth bottle, up to three-fourth of its capacity. All the urine samples were plated onto the MacConkey agar within 2 h of collection using standard methods in the laboratory of our hospital. The plates were then kept in incubator at 37°C. Two checks for culture growth were done at 24 h and 48 h. On identification of growth, colony count was done using standard methods. The plates which did not show any growth even after 48 h of incubation were discarded. Discussion and Conclusion: In the present study, we found the prevalence of 5.33% in pregnant women attending our tertiary care hospital. Out of 36, asymptomatic bacteria were seen in 16 (2.66%), symptomatic bacteriuria in 20 (3.33%) and overall symptoms of UTI seen in 172 (26.6%) pregnant women. It is also evident in the present study that E. coli as the main cause of UTIs in pregnant women of this city (72.2%), Klebsiella as the second cause of UTI (16.6%) and Proteus accounted for 11.1% of the cases.The physiological changes of pregnancy predispose women to UTI so does other factors such as age, sexual activity, multiparity, previous history of UTI and socio-economic conditions. All pregnant women should be screened for UTI with a urine culture, treated with antibiotics if the culture is positive and then retested for cure. The goal of early diagnosis and treatment of UTI during pregnancy is to prevent complications with all the added benefits to the mother and the Fetus.

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