Giving antibiotics before cesarean section surgery rather than just after the newborn’s umbilical cord is clamped cuts the infection rate at the surgical site in half, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“It was always a theoretical concern that giving antibiotics might somehow mask sepsis in the neonate,” said David Warren, MD, associate professor of medicine. “But there have been several recent studies showing that this was not an issue.” The study is available online and appears in the August issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
