I don't know the rate of gonorrhea and chlamydia neonatal eye infection in the US, but a thought occurred to me as I read your post ---Could the reason we treat every baby prophylactically
be that, because we don't have a strong socialized medicine program here, we're afraid that 'if we don't treat this potential infection now, it may never get noticed and treated' when our babies leave the hospital with uncertain follow-up care.  .??
Melinda Harris Moulton ARNP IBCLC Olympia WA
Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 25, 2014, at 4:29 PM, Rachel Myr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Being busy with work and family visiting, I have fallen behind on
> Lactnet.    I am always surprised whenever I get reminded that newborns in
> the US are still having eye prophylaxis against STDs they probably don't
> have. Anyone know what the prevalence of gonorrhea and/or chlamydia in
> pregnant women is in the US?
> We stopped this practice in Norway before I became a midwife and indeed,
> before I had my son here in 1986. In 25 years of practice on a postpartum
> ward I have yet to see a case of conjunctivitis caused by either of the
> aforementioned bugs. It is not because mothers here lead chaste, controlled
> lives, either. We don't treat babies unless they actually get sticky eyes
> and that happens a few times each month, invariably from S. aureus (we do
> cultures). My understanding is that there is plenty of time to initiate
> treatment after symptoms and signs appear. They never used ointment either.
> The eye prophylaxis that was abandoned was silver nitrate drops and the
> irritation it caused was thought to be worse than an infection.
> Rachel Myr, Kristiansand, Norway
> 
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