Group B Strep

[LittlePotSoonHot]

I have group b strep in my urine and am currently on antibiotics. I've been told I will need to be on an antibiotic drip in labour. Does anybody have any experience of this? My main concern is the risk to the baby in utero now and at birth. I'm unclear really about what this means. Thanks so much for any advice

No harm to baby now. During Labour you will have a bag of iv antibiotics every 4 hours, if I remember correctly. Your baby will be safe because of this. I had to change my thinking and feel grateful it had been picked up. Lots of women give birth and don't know they have it.

I ended up with an emcs so it was all pointless anyway!

I had a baby (my DS2) who was very poorly with group b strep after he was born . He was in hospital for 2 weeks with IV line and oxygen. it was terrifying. He's fine now apart from being a bit spoilt :)

Subsequent baby i had the antibiotic drip during labour but they started it too late & I didn't have it all, so DS3 had to have ABs for a day or two after he was born. I was staying in anyway, to recover from a rushed forceps birth, so this wasn't a big deal. It was Hugely preferable to my previous experience of having such a poorly baby.
Good luck, but don't worry, you and baby will be fine .
Kxx

Yes I had it, anti biotics in labour. No probs. Glad they found it.

I had antibiotics during C section for group B (they may do so anyway for C section because of surgery infection risk, I'm not sure)

Anyway please don't worry - you're having the antibiotics to protect your baby so risk should be low now

Hiya!
Group b Strep support are the best for info and support.
gbss.org.uk/

Have a look at, particularly the leaflet they have co-designed with the RCOG. A lot of it is for when you don't know if you have GBS but there's also a lot on on what happens when you know you have it.
They also have a phone helpline if you have more quesstions.

OP, how did it get picked up? I thought NHS didn't test for it?

They will swab for any discharge which may pick it up. They don't screen for it.

Thanks everyone, I feel much better because of these responses.

It got picked up because a routine dipstick urine test showed I had a bit of a urine infection. The midwife sent it away for analysis as a result. It's not standard to screen for it. I'm really grateful to her or I wouldn't know!

I'm 37 weeks and got to have antibiotics in labour due to strep B as well

I had group b strep picked up after a miscarriage when a swab was done. I’ve subsequently had a baby who is 8 days old. One thing I would say is insist on the antibiotics early. I went to hospital as soon as my contractions started. I was sent home saying it was too early. I had the baby 5 hours later and they had not managed to give me enough antibiotics. Luckily baby is fine although there were worries after the birth she was too cold and had therefore been infected by strep b. If this had been the case I would have complained.
Please insist they give you the antibiotics as soon as you feel a contraction!

Thanks for that advice @Toolchest13, I will

I had an induction so they were able to give antibiotics at the same time and all fine. As pp have said, the danger to the baby is in not having the antibiotics during birth.

My top tip - make sure you have some canniston at home - for me, the ABs gave me thrush by killing of good bacteria too and my first night home from hospital was awful before i managed to get to a pharmacy.

I agree on asking that they start them early, mine were started too late (even though I was induced in hospital so they had a fair warning things were going to happen!)
Kxx

Group B Strep isn't active all of the time so you may not have it during labour even though you've tested positive now depending on how many weeks you are currently. You can have a private test done around 36 weeks to see if it is active, the result of this test should remain accurate up to birth. Even if you do test positive again at 36 weeks you don't have to have the antibiotics if you don't want them, it's up to you. The risks to baby are higher in pre term births and births where waters have broken more than 17 hours prior to active labour, in full term babies the risk of a poorly baby is very small. There is loads of info on google which will help you decide if you want antibiotics. Also many birth centres now accept women with a cannula in situ meaning you don't have to give birth on labour ward if you don't feel comfortable there. If you do opt for antibiotics they administer either through a 20 minute drip every 4 hours or a 2 minute injection into the cannula, both options mean you can still have an active labour without being restricted to lying on the bed .

I'm fighting my midwife to be allowed to birth in a MWU not labour ward. She is reticent because I have GBS. Has anyone on here had a waterbirth with a known case of GBS?

@DevonRosie I haven't had personal experience yet. I tested positive for GBS two years ago and will test at 36 weeks to see if it is active again. Previous research on water births and GBS has indicated a lower prevalence of GBS babies in water compared to dry births, the reason for this is not confirmed but one potential reason is that the water dilutes the bacteria making infection less likely. Some NHS trusts support women to birth in midwife led units with cannulas in situ to enable antibiotics during labour whilst using birthing pools. If your trust does not support this they may have a pool room on labour ward that you could use, or you could decide to have a water birth at home without antibiotics, if you are comfortable doing so.

Mine was picked up in a routine urine sample at booking in appointment (10 weeks). I'm having a section so will get IV antibiotics anyway as per hospital protocol, and so that will also cover me for group B strep, but I think it's more of an issue for anyone having a natural delivery.

@Terriersandtea my DS who was very poorly with GBS was born at full term, after a fairly quick (4 hour) labour. Whatever google may say I do think that the antibiotics are a good idea if you know you have GBS.

@kitty1013 I'm sorry to hear that, I am not advocating OP not having antibiotics, I am just letting her know that she does not have to have them. Many, many women go through labour without knowing they can make decisions for their own and their babies care. Fully informed decisions should take into account the available evidence, hence why I suggested googling GBS for evidenced based information and guidelines (e.g. NICE).

I have group b strep, during labour like people have said, I got two lots of antibiotics. Labour was moving quicker than expected so had to wait to start pushing so second lot was in my system longer. And no problems after birth. Hope this helps

Hi all

Thanks again for all your responses. I'm going to phone the GBS support group later today. But I've just got hold of a leaflet sent to be my midwife. The leaflet states that ""Babies who develop GBS infection are usually exposed to it in the womb, although this can also happen during labour or passage through the birth canal".

This makes it sound, to me, like the baby is more likely to be born with the infection because it has contracted it in utero (rather than just exposed on the way out). This is my main concern at the moment and this information doesn't correlate with what I understood previously ie that the risk was most acute during birth. Any thoughts? Thanks so much. The infection was found in my urine rather than on a vaginal swab

@LittlePotSoonHot hey how did the support group go? Did they give you any further info on the risk to baby pre labour? From the reading I have done I didn't think this was the case so would be interested to hear any further info on this aspect.

I'm 19 weeks and also had GBS in urine and had a round of antibiotics. I have read loads on it and my understanding is that the risk is during delivery, thus the antibiotics in labour. I was worried at first, but am not at all worried now-and given it's not always (/rarely) picked up, I am grateful it's been picked up and the baby will get the best treatment.

Thanks both, the support group was amazing! The risk in utero is negligible - it can happen but it's very rare. For the infection to pass to the baby all of the defences of both mother and baby would have had to fail (and there are a lot of them). The risk, as you say, is during labour and at birth and they will be managing it. Feeling a lot better, they really were wonderful on the phone and even sent me a follow up email summarising our conversation and all the various facts. They also sent me a link to the most up to date leaflet where the wording is much clearer. The leaflet I quoted from earlier in the thread is apparently out of date and has been replaced. They agreed it made it sound like there was a higher risk in utero but this is not the case. Phew! I'll find it and post the link in a second...

gbss.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2017-Joint-RCOG-GBSS-PIL_final.pdf