Objective The objective of this study was to estimate the weekly prevalence of self-reported recently acquired infections in women MAKITA at least 20 weeks pregnant.Design We conducted a cross-sectional survey of pregnant women in a hospital antenatal clinic in Sydney, Australia between August 2008 and April 2009.Women were asked to report whether they had onset of a new infection in the 7 days before completing the questionnaire, and were asked for details of symptoms and medication taken.Results 737 women at least 20 weeks pregnant completed the survey (94% of women approached).Five per cent of the completed questionnaires reported the onset of an infection in the 7 days prior to survey completion.
When symptoms were analysed, 3.5% of women were classified as having a moderate or severe infection in the Hand Cream past 7 days.The most common infection reported was a cold/upper respiratory tract infection followed by gastroenteritis.Women pregnant with their first child had a lower rate of self-reported infection than women who had other children (2.9% vs 7.
2%).Conclusions These results can be used to inform future research examining acute infection as a trigger for pregnancy complications.