Neonatal sepsis due to vertical transmission from maternal genital tract

Maternal vaginal flora during labor and its effect on gestational age and birthweight of neonates

“…3 No Group B Streptococcus (GBS) was found in the present study. This is comparable to other Indian studies like Ayengar V et al, Ahmedabad which also did not yield GBS as the incidence of GBS colonization in India is quite low (19%) Barbara S et al 4,5 Relation between age and vaginal colonization Table 2 shows that 100% of mothers <20 years had colonization, whereas, it was 52.63% in 20-30 years and 40% in >30 years, showing a statistically significant decreasing trend of colonization with increasing maternal age. This is comparable to the observations of Singh M et al which names maternal age of <20 years as one of the predisposing factors for vaginal colonization.…”

Risk of Early-Onset Neonatal Infection with Maternal Infection or Colonization: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Our qualitative analysis included all 83 studies; our quantitative meta-analysis included 67 of them (Figure 1). Nine studies used definitions of maternal exposures or neonatal outcomes that were too heterogeneous to combine in the meta-analysis [6],[17]–[24]; these studies had ORs of neonatal outcomes among those maternally exposed compared to those unexposed between 0.5 and 194.6. Six studies used a case-control design and were excluded from the meta-analyses [25]–[30].…”

“…These bacteria, often common colonizers in the maternal vaginal tract, may be transmitted to newborns during the delivery process when newborns come into direct contact with bacterial flora. Ascending infections from the mother to the fetus may occur before or during labour when colonized bacteria from the maternal perineum spread through the vaginal canal, amniotic sac, and into the once-sterile amniotic fluid [5],[6]. Amniotic fluid infection, or chorioamnionitis, and bacteremia are additional sources of bacterial transmission from the mother to fetus in utero .…”

Maternal and neonatal colonization in Bangladesh: prevalences, etiologies and risk factors

“…3 Studies in South Asia have examined the prevalence of maternal colonization, although there have been no studies in Bangladesh. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Maternal recto-vaginal colonization with Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is associated with early-onset GBS neonatal sepsis in the United States. 13,14 However, based on the limited data, it appears that Group B Streptococcal sepsis in newborns is uncommon in South Asia.…”