How bad is it to have urinary tract infections in pregnancy?
Urinary tract infections lead to preterm labor as well as increase the risk for infections that ascend into the kidney, pyleonephritis, and may cause permanent kidney damage. From 3-10% of women have urinary tract infections in pregnancy and most of these are preceded by bacteria in the urine without any symptoms (asymptomatic bactiuria). Most screening tests in pregnancy are designed pick up asymptomatic bactiuria and treat it before it even becomes a UTI, much less a serious pyleonephritis. If a woman does have a pyleonephritis infection during pregnancy, she needs a kidney Xray after delivery to look for congenital anomalies of the urological tract. If the infection does not clear with adequate treatment in pregnancy imaging studies may need to be done during pregnancy to rule out any renal abscesses that do not clear up. Do other types of vaginal infections cause harm to the baby? Yeast vaginitis does not seem to cause a problem producing preterm labor or an infection in the newbor
