What medicine should I take for urinary tract infection during pregnancy

Women are very prone to illness during pregnancy, but they cannot be treated with usual methods because the baby in the belly will absorb some of the food and medicine the mother eats and the medicine she takes. Therefore, expectant mothers should be very careful when choosing medicines to treat diseases. So, what medicine should I take for urinary tract infection during pregnancy?

First, what medicine should I take for urinary tract infection during pregnancy? Urinary tract infection is one of the most common infections during pregnancy, with an incidence of about 10.2%; pregnant women are twice as likely to develop urinary tract infection as ordinary women; urinary tract infection is divided into lower urinary tract infection and upper urinary tract infection according to the site of occurrence; and is divided into asymptomatic urinary tract infection and symptomatic urinary tract infection according to the presence or absence of symptoms, with incidences of 13.0% and 17.9% respectively. Asymptomatic urinary tract infection refers to a positive urine culture for bacteria but no symptoms of urinary tract infection. This is the most common form and often occurs in the first month of pregnancy; symptomatic urinary tract infection includes lower urinary tract infection (acute cystitis) and upper urinary tract infection (acute pyelonephritis). Severe urinary tract infection during pregnancy can cause septic shock, pregnancy-induced hypertension syndrome, anemia, etc., and can cause serious consequences such as intrauterine growth retardation, premature birth, respiratory distress syndrome, congenital malformations and fetal death.

Second, whether it is symptomatic urinary tract infection or asymptomatic bacteriuria, the key to diagnosis is clean midstream urine culture. A clean midstream urine culture should be performed before using antibiotic treatment. Before the urine culture results come out, empirical treatment should be started based on the most common clinical pathogens and their sensitivity. Then, sensitive antibiotics should be selected for treatment based on the drug sensitivity results. When choosing antibiotics during pregnancy, one must consider not only the effectiveness and low drug resistance of the drugs, but also the avoidance of adverse effects on pregnant women and fetuses. One should try to choose drugs that are non-toxic and non-teratogenic to the fetus.

What medicine should you take for urinary tract infection during pregnancy? First consider using ampicillin and cephalosporin drugs. It would be best if antibiotics could be selected based on the results of urine bacterial culture and drug sensitivity tests, but drugs that are very effective for urinary tract infections but are harmful to the fetus (such as quinolones, gentamicin, kanamycin, chloramphenicol, etc.) should not be used. If Western medicine cannot find a suitable drug or the symptoms recur, it can be used as an auxiliary treatment with Chinese medicine or medicated diet therapy to improve and consolidate the therapeutic effect.