Group B Strep

[LynseyLou1982]

Talk to me about Group B Strep. I'm 35 weeks and I've been hearing about this and that the NHS don't routroutinely test for it but that you can get a private test for about £35. Has anyone got experience of this, is it worth getting a private test done? Spoke to midwife about it but she just said it's up to me to decide and that one week I could test positive for it and then the next week could get tested again and be negative.

[Ihatemarmite123]

I had it in my first pregnancy, not sure about this one as it's transient. I had an nhs test last time but it looks like that's stopped being done now?

It was no big deal, I had iv antibiotics just after my water were broken

[Poppyscot87]

I am 36 weeks today. I ordered from Strepelle. Did home kit on Monday and popped straight in the post. Got my text today to say Negative so no need to do anything. If it had been positive advice is to share with GP/midwife straight away.
I thought it was well worth the money for some peace of mind.

[FairNotFair]

I tested positive for it in late pregnancy; I didn't even know I'd been tested as I'd undergone quite a few tests after a lateish bleed. As a result, I was scheduled to be put on an antibiotic drip as soon as labour was established. Unfortunately, after 14 hours of unproductive back-to-back labour, I went from 1cm to 10cm in less than half an hour, so didn't get enough antibiotics... so DS2 and I had to stay for an extra 48 hours so they could check he was ok.

[goingagain]

I have had private care with all of my pregnancies and did a kit test at around 35/36 weeks. All negative until this time - I sent the kit away and got the result by text 10 minutes after baby was born at 37 weeks exactly. So I obviously didn’t have ABs. They observed the baby for 24 hrs (did not automatically give antibiotics) and he was fine.

Coincidentally I had actually been taking ABs for a horrendous throat infection from the day before I gave birth. Not sure if this made a difference or not...

[Faalaa]

I'd read about it too after a work colleague told me she had it. My midwife had no interest in offering a test for it so I ordered one myself from groupbstreptest. I'd have gone insane with worry if I hadn't. Luckily it came back negative and was worth paying in my eyes rather than risk the baby being ill.

[JJPP123]

The NHS took it upon themselves to test me for group B strep when I had a vaginal swab for thrush. This was at about 32 weeks. My GP surgery them retested me at 35 weeks and it was negative again

[LynseyLou1982]

I decided to do the test and sent it off this morning.

[Lizzibetz]

I am 39+4 and did the Strepelle test at 36 weeks which came back positive. I have told my midwives I am Group Strep B positive and they said I will be given a drip when I get to the birth centre when I am in labour. I can still have a water birth...I just need to keep my arm out of the water.

In my opinion it is definitely worth taking the test for peace of mind. It doesn't cost much and the results are sent by text a few days later.

Good luck

[HeyJupiter]

I was in two minds but like you ended up doing the test. It gave me peace of mind. My midwife gave me the same stats as you got but actually if you look online it says that if you take the test at the end of pregnancy it's very unlikely that your strep b status will have changed by full term so is relatively reliable. I'm delighted that I did it as was one less thing to worry about. Good luck.

[LynseyLou1982]

Hi, I got my test results by text yesterday and thankfully it was negative :-)