Yes and no.

It depends on certain circumstances, whether you are first time pregnant or subsequent pregnancy.

If by any chance your earlier pregnancy resulted in a premature or low birth rate baby delivery, then it is strongly advisable that you go for a bacterial vaginosis test regardless of whether the signs and symptoms are present or not.

It is better to be safe than sorry for the second time.

If you have any other vaginal infections prior to your pregnancy (including first timers), then you are advised to go for the test.

However, if you are a healthy woman prior to pregnancy who do not have any history of vaginal infections, or you do not show any signs and symptoms of bacterial vaginosis during your pregnancy, or you’ve never had any complications during your previous pregnancy, then it is not required to do the testing.

If you are still worried and unconvinced, then you should trust your instinct and got for the tests.

Bacterial Vaginosis FAQ

1. Is Bacterial Vaginosis Common Among Women?
2. How Can I Get Bacterial Vaginosis?
3. What Are The Risks Involved if I Have Bacterial Vaginosis During Pregnancy?
4. What Are The Health Complications of Bacterial Vaginosis?
5. What Are The Signs and Symptoms of Bacterial Vaginosis?
6. What Treatments Are Available for Bacterial Vaginosis?
7. I Have Bacterial Vaginosis. Does My Partner Needs Treatment Too?
8. Do I Need to Routinely Test for Bacterial Vaginosis During My Pregnancy?
9. How Can I Prevent Bacterial Vaginosis?

When you’re pregnant you pay attention to every little thing that you do and analyze whether or not it will affect the baby. This is a natural response of good mothering.

One of the things you might consider is whether to  insert a tampon which is soaked in yogurt into your vagina to treat bacterial vaginosis.

Safety During Pregnancy Involves Analyzing What You Eat

For example, every time you sit down to a meal, you’ll wonder if the fish, French fries, coffee, coca cola, or burger is going to properly nourish your baby or whether it will cause birth defects or problems with the birthing process. The answer, of course is that any processed food or food high in sugar can potentially interfere with the baby’s genes and health.

In adults, eating processed foods turns on genes that cause diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Many health experts believe that eating processed foods has the potential to turn on genes for disease in your baby even before he or she is born.

Safety During Pregnancy Involves Analyzing Habits

Wondering about what is safe and what is not extends to personal habits as well. You know that drinking alcohol, even occasionally can harm the baby. So can smoking. And by far, the worst habit is recreational drugs of any kind.

But what about personal habits such as inserting a tampon or inserting a tampon that is soaked in yogurt for bacterial vaginosis?

Interestingly enough, clicking on the tampon safety page at the website Kotex.com gives an error message that the page cannot be found.

The website, BabyMed.com reports that tampons don’t have any impact on a pregnancy and that miscarriages are caused from chromosome problems, not tampons.

How do you know for sure?

To sort out the truth, let’s use common sense and first consider if a tampon is safe at all.

Research has shown that tampons cause micro ulcerations of the vaginal tissues. If you are pregnant, the micro ulcerations could potentially get infected and cause a problem with your baby.

A problem about tampons was quite scandalous years ago regarding how the tampons were made. Manufacturers were using super absorbent cotton in the tampons that made it easy for harmful Staphylococcus bacteria to reproduce quickly. Hundreds of women ended up with Toxic Shock Syndrome and some of them died as a result.

Further investigations discovered that tampons contained high levels of dioxin and bleach as well. Dioxin is a known carcinogen and teratogen, which is a substance that can harm your developing baby. A lawsuit ensued and companies were forced to change their evil ways and lower dioxin levels. Of course, there was a big cover-up in the process. Companies didn’t want to divulge that they were putting these chemicals into the tampons. No one could answer the question of why it was so important to use chemicals in tampons.

To this day, there still is no accountability for tampon ingredients. Whether or not the dioxin or other substituted harmful chemicals are still used remains a mystery to everyone.

Smart health practitioners recommend that women do not use tampons at all. Why take a risk that your female organs will be exposed to chemicals that aren’t revealed to the public for 20 years? And if you’re pregnant, why take any risk at all with the tampons?

What About Tampon Safety for Pregnant Women with BV?

Most women use tampons in between their periods to absorb a discharge. This is true with pregnant women as well. However, using common sense, we have to consider why there is a discharge in the first place. Is it because there is some type of infection or an imbalance of flora as is seen in bacterial vaginosis? If so, then the discharge needs to be addressed. If it’s due to bacterial vaginosis, then it’s important to clear that up because BV can harm the developing baby and you. One of the easiest way to do this is by incorporating yogurt in your diet.

Women with BV have discovered that inserting a tampon soaked in yogurt can also be a quick way to eliminate the symptoms of BV and restore the balance. In pregnancy, you have to weigh the risks. Do you want your baby exposed to the chemicals in the tampon? Certainly the yogurt live bacteria is helpful but at what risk, even if it’s small.

Some women may believe that because the tampon is only going to be in the vagina for a few hours and that reduces exposure so it’s no risk. However, there’s something else that you should know about tampons: they are not sterile.

The longer you have had your tampons, the higher the bacterial count in them, even though they were wrapped in a wrapper.

So now make your decision. Do you still want to insert that tampon – even though it is soaked in the good bacteria from yogurt that your vagina needs – when you’re pregnant?

Good mothers will say NO. They won’t take a risk at all. Instead they will eat yogurt and take probiotics capsules.

It’s a safer way to live and protective for your baby.

Did you know that if left untreated, the imbalance of flora in bacterial vaginosis can actually prevent pregnancy?

Bacterial vaginosis that is out of control can end up costing you your fallopian tubes by causing pelvic inflammatory disease. It’s a human tragedy when this occurs.

The process by which this occurs is a three–step process:

1. The bad bacteria that is increased in bacterial vaginosis such as Gardnerella or Staph or Streptococcus or other anaerobic bacteria multiply to high numbers.
2. Looking for new tissues to colonize, the bacteria move upwards into the female reproductive tissues and can spread into the pelvic cavity. When they find a new place that hasn’t been colonized yet, they take over like terrorists, killing the good flora that is protecting these tissues.
3. Next the microbes start to cause destruction of the tissues. If the fallopian tubes are damaged by the bacteria, the woman cannot get pregnant the usual way which occurs using the fallopian tubes. The problem, however, is that the tubes may be damaged for good and never recover, leaving the woman infertile. This is what is meant by the phrase that bacterial vaginosis doesn’t prevent pregnancy in a good way.
4. If the microbes infiltrate the pelvic area, then it’s easy for them to cause Pelvic Inflammatory Disease or PID. An infection in the pelvic can damage any of the organs or tissues in that area.

Who would have thought that a simple imbalance of flora could become so harmful?

According to the American Pregnancy Association, the number of pregnant women that have bacterial vaginosis is 10-30%. When bacterial vaginosis occurs in a pregnant woman, it can potentially cause problems with the fetus.

For example, a baby can be born pre-term or not grow as fast as it should in the uterus that is infected with organisms that cause bacterial vaginosis. There are countless cases where these babies are born with a low birth weight, which causes them to be at risk for many health problems in life.

A pregnant woman with bacterial vaginosis is also at a higher risk for miscarriages.

Protect Your Vaginal Flora

It’s important for every woman to protect her flora.

The easiest way to do this is to eat yogurt as part of your regular diet. Yogurt contains the bacteria called Lactobacillus which is the exact same bacteria that your vagina needs to maintain normal flora. By eating the microbe, it gets distributed to the areas that need it most through the blood.

If you are lactose intolerant, you can still benefit from yogurt by soaking your tampon in yogurt for about five minutes, then inserting it into the vagina. This is a good way to reintroduce the helpful flora. Another way is to insert a capsule of Probiotics with the Lactobacillus bacteria into the vagina.

These are measures that can be done on a regular monthly basis. They’re an excellent way to protect your flora from a natural alternative perspective.