3.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS
A total of 621 pregnant women accepted to participate in this study and they all had corresponding both obstetric data and bacteriological cultures. The mean age (± SD) of the study population was 26.49 ± 5.77 years, and the ages ranged from 16 to 44 years. The mean gestational age (± SD) was 23.46 ± 6.44 weeks, and the gestational ages ranged from 8 to 36 weeks. The overall prevalence of GBS colonisation among pregnant women was 8.69% (54/621).