Prevalence of postpartum infections: a population-based observational study

We investigated the prevalence of postpartum infections among women giving birth during 1year in a population-based observational/questionnaire study at seven hospitals in the southeast region of Sweden. Of the women >99% (n=11124) received a questionnaire to inquire if they had endometritis, mastitis, or wound, urinary tract or any other infection within 2months 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.