Abstract

It is important to detect infection early during pregnancy and following delivery so treatment can be started quickly with better outcomes for women. We looked at two indicators of inflammation and infection, c-reactive protein and procalcitonin. There is limited information available on the normal values for these markers at delivery and immediately after delivery, therefore we sought to establish normal ranges in this setting so abnormal values associated with infection could be recognised. We collected samples from healthy women with uncomplicated pregnancies at delivery and on the first and third day after delivery. We excluded women with twin pregnancies restricting our study to singleton pregnancies instead. In total, 189 women participated and some of these women were recruited at delivery or after giving birth. We recruited some women who had vaginal delivery and some who had surgical assisted delivery (caesarean section). C-reactive protein results in these women showed huge variability making it an unsuitable test for the assessment of infection. Procalcitonin, on the other hand proved to be a highly specific marker for infection. We were able to establish a cut-off level for procalcitonin (0.25 ug/L) which would enable clinicians to rule out infection in pregnancy or after delivery.