New mums who experience complications in childbirth are to be given routine antibiotics for the first time.
Medication will be given to all women who have non-routine births to reduce the chance of infection which can hamper the healing process.
Antibiotics are currently given to women after a caesarean birth to prevent infections but not to women who have a birth assisted by forceps or a suction cup.
That will now change despite a growing reluctance to prescribe antibiotics in GP surgeries.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), which sets clinical practice guidelines for the NHS, will issue new guidelines approving their use.
It is unknown how the dose will be administered but it is expected to be via injection into the thigh.
The change in guidance will mean that an estimated 7000 infections a year in the UK will
be avoided.
Dr Marie Anne Ledingham, consultant obstetrician at the RCOG, said: “The RCOG clinical guidelines are being updated and, based on findings from a large trial, will include a recommendation to offer a single-dose antibiotic to women who have an assisted birth with forceps or ventouse suction in order to significantly reduce the risk of infection in mothers after birth.
“In the UK, around 12 per cent of women have an assisted vaginal birth.
“The findings from this trial show that antibiotics could reduce infections by half –
equivalent to around 7000 infections every year.”
The guidelines, which are expected to be changed in March, are being updated following a study carried out by scientists at Oxford University.
The research was published last May.
It found that giving a single dose of antibiotics after an assisted birth could reduce the number of infections by around 50 per cent.
Professor Marian Knight, of Oxford University, said: “Some individual doctors and hospitals have already changed their practice and administer a routine preventive antibiotic dose to women but the new guidelines should ensure that all women receive this preventive dose after a medically assisted birth.
“This will prevent not only many infections but other problems such as pain and discomfort.”
The study involved women in the UK being given antibiotics after an assisted vaginal birth to prevent infection.
Scientists found that antibiotics reduced the rate of infection from 19 per cent to 11 per cent, with more severe bloodstream infections reduced from 1.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent.
The chances of developing potentially deadly sepsis also fell by 41 per cent.
Dr Khaled Elsapagh, a consultant gynaecologist at University Hospital Hairmyres in East Kilbride, said the hospital had already updated its guidelines.
He added: “This is good news as there was a significant reduction in the number of postnatal infections in the study.
“Infection is the main complication leading to long-term problems in the perineal area.”
