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Henci GoerFind out what other moms-to-be are asking.  Join in the discussion with Henci Goer, an expert in obstetric research. If you would like to contact Henci outside of the Ask Henci forum, send an email to Goersitemail@aol.com.

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Reply To Topic Topic: Preventing PPROM
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Posted By Henci Goer, BA on 14 Oct 2009 04:00 PM

Good for you for working on losing weight before another pregnancy! That will reduce the chances of complications for you and your baby, not to mention the benefits for your own health down the road, although I don't know as it will affect the likelihood of preterm prelabor rupture of membranes.

One theory of a cause for PPROM is a silent vaginal infection. There is a systematic review (a study of studies on a particular topic) of the medical research on antibiotic treatment to prevent PPROM that reported that while the studies weren't high quality, when data from them were pooled and analyzed, results showed that antibiotic treatment cleared the infection, and women were 1/3 less likely to have a low-birth-weight baby, but preterm birth rates were not reduced.   If you want to try this, you may want to do something to rebuild normal harmless vaginal flora and fauna so you don't end up with a yeast or fungal infection. As for bathing, bath water does not enter the vagina during bathing. An elegant experiment decades ago proved that. Researchers impregnated tampons with starch and had pregnant women bathe in water that had iodine in it. If the water had entered the vagina, the tampons would have turned purple. None of them did. There is also a systematic review of antibiotic treatment with PPROM concluding that it reduced newborn infections, which is an important benefit whether it delayed labor or not. 

-- Henci  

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