• Factors affecting urinary tract infection during pregnancy and its negative effects
  • Zahra Sadat Aghaei Shahri,1,* Valareza Alizadeh,2
    1. Zahra Shadat Aghaei Shahri Member of Omid research group of Islamic Azad university . Mashhad Branch . Mashhad . Iran
    2. Medical Student of Islamic Azad University, Mashhad branch, Mashhad, Iran


  • Introduction: Urinary tract infections are inflammatory responses of the urinary density epithelium to microbial attack. A pregnant woman is a condition in which a woman has an embryo or fetus in her womb. The human embryo is a diploid multicellular eukaryote that results from human reproduction.. The second most common complication in pregnant women and the most important infectious disease in Iran in 2013 is urinary tract infection, which is one of the main causes of cesarean section and is mainly due to the presence and growth of microorganisms in the urinary tract.
  • Methods: We searched PubMed, Google Scholar search engine with acute key words” urinary tract infections” , “pregnant women” and “human fetus”. All articles were published between 1982 until 2020 and have ethical considerations. As a result of our research if our research, 42 articles were found respectively. All the studies, use human samples. After investigating their titles 15 articles were excluded and by reading abstracts 5 articles excluded. Finally, 22 articles were included.
  • Results: According to 9 articles, there is a risk of urinary tract infection from the beginning of week 6 to 24 of pregnancy. According to 3 articles, changing the temperature of the seasons is one of the main causes of urinary tract infections and the highest rate of urinary tract infections in pregnancy in winter. In the 9 articles mentioned, the most common bacterium that causes urinary tract infections during pregnancy is Escherichia coli. According to 9 articles, the increased risk of urinary tract infections during pregnancy is mainly due to the history of urinary tract infections as well as economic and social status, personal hygiene, personal characteristics, sickle cell disease and anemia, age, number of births, lack of care during pregnancy , Physiological changes during pregnancy in the urinary tract and endocrine system increase the risk of urinary tract infections. According to 8 articles, this complication increases the risk of mental retardation or delay in intrauterine growth as well as fetal death in the third trimester of pregnancy and reduces fetal weight and cesarean section. Other risks include anemia, high blood pressure, such as preeclampsia, the risk of miscarriage, and cystitis. According to another article, group B streptococcal infection causes abnormal urinary tract infections in infants, amnionitis, and preterm labor.
  • Conclusion: Until now the number of studies was done in this field was low. We can get more reliable results, if more studies tend to this field. According to the articles studied, the result is that uncontrolled urinary tract infections are a risk to maternal and fetal health. Therefore, preventive care should be done at all ages, especially during pregnancy, and pregnant women should be tested for bacterial infections and should be treated by specialists if they notice the disease.
  • Keywords: Urinary tract infections, Pregnant women, Human fetus