Gloria from Vancouver, BC said: "It's interesting to note that this is a N. American obsession--putting antibiotics in baby's eyes. It is not done in England or Australia and midwives in those countries are mystified by why N. Americans do this routinely. " I totally agree about in the fact that in some cases this is unnecessary treatment - and it was easy for our son and daughter-in-law to refuse it, but they were at a university hospital, are white and both are very well educated, married and had had a monogamous relationship since their last test for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI). In order to make changes for all, it is necessary to change the protocol. The research that drives having this treatment as a standard of care is the extensive amount of STI that are in our population - many which never get tested or treated for STIs. Research proved that utilizing this medication helps prevent blindness due to exposure to gonorrhea - however, the research was not clear on how long they could wait to be effective. I have to admit that wanting to avoid unnecessary blindness is a very real reason for utilizing the treatment - so I believe that we need to learn is how long it is safe to wait. So can our friends in Canada, England and Australia who are already NOT doing this treatment report on outcomes and help us to change the protocols? (I also would HIGHLY recommend research to see if utilizing colostrum for the newborns' eyes might not be an effective way to avoid using antibiotics.) I was also wondering if there is a "fast test" available like there is now for HIV so that physicians could order it and avoid introducing unnecessary antibiotics into infants? Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC California, USA *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome