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Your baby may be at risk of contracting an eye infection from a sexually transmitted infection (STI) during childbirth, and if not treated, this can cause blindness Your care provider will determine if your baby is at risk or not and if so will apply an ointment to your baby's eyes that contains an antibiotic that helps to prevent eye infections. Although this medication does not harm your baby, your baby can become mildly irritated and experience temporary blurred vision. You may ask that the instillation of the ointment be delayed up to one hour after your baby’s birth to promote eye contact and bonding.
The application of this ointment has been questioned and debated by some agencies. According to the Canadian Pediatric Society, research evidence does not support this mandatory practice since the agents used in the eye ointment have been shown to be ineffective. For this reason, along with the low rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections in the general population, they recommend that the newborn eye ointment treatment should not be required by law. Many countries around the world and provinces within Canada have abandoned this law already