Waters breaking - Group B Strep

[NoTeaForMe]

Hi,

I have Group B Strep and so will be having antibiotics during labour. I have read somewhere (perhaps on here?!) that the baby is more at risk once your waters have broken, it does make sense I guess as the baby is not being protected by the water. If by any chance my waters don't break naturally can I request that the midwife does not break them herself til absolutely necessary, if at all? Does this seem like a sensible thing to do? How do midwives feel about things like that, being told what to do etc?!

Thanks in advance

I know that I have to have antibiotics in labour, preferably for 4 hours before baby is born. If for whatever reason I don't get this the baby will have antibiotics after birth. I can't give birth at a midwife led place I have to go to the hospital. Not sure about water birth, have presumed it's a no, to be honest I don't like the idea of actually giving birth in water anyway so I haven't asked!

My question really is about having my waters broken if they don't break naturally? Is it better to refuse this and keep them in tact for as long as possible?

I tested positive for GBSS in a home kit had a hospital birth centre water birth in 2008 and once I'd had the IV antibiotics they let me in the pool. My waters were bulging and eventualy they broke them 2 hours before I gave birth. It think they needed to be broken at that point to progress the labour.

Its my understanding that the longer they are intact the better.

I recommend being very clear in your birth plan about your wishes. This should be discussed at 36 weeks and set your expectations on hospital policy. I asked for the canula not to be in permanently but they pointed out that if a second dose was needed then it would be difficult to set-up a second one so I kept the cannula in.

When I was out of the water it hurt a lot more than in so I was happy to give birth in iit!

This time the birth unit at the hospital have said I can go for another water birth they just need to get the cannular in and administer the antibiotics as the first step.

I think if your waters break but you don't go into labour after a certain amount of time and are GBSS positive then the rules kick vary

When i was pregnant with my first DC. My waters broke 2 days before my contractions started. They asked me to go into the hospital to do a swab and check for Strep B then sent me home.
I arrived back at the hospital a day and half later and went into Labour with a high temperature and was put on an antibiotic drip has a precaution against Strep B.

My son was born and had to have (I think it was a canula) fitted into his little hand and we had to stay in hospital for 4 days to clear up the potential infection. In the end, from what I understood we both didn't have strep B but was given all the antibiotics as a precaution to my waters breaking prior to going into established labour.

So what I am trying to get at is if you can, hold back on having your waters broke because in my experience it left both me an d my son open to the infection - although obviously everything was fine in the end

with ds1 i didn't know but they had taken a swab at birth. this is/was rountine in glasgow and thats how we found out. ds1 was taken into hospital and given antibotics for a week. he's fine.
with ds2 there was no time for antibotics. mw broke my waters and i had ds2 with 40mins of arriving at hospital. he was in hospital having ab but in a way that was good as they then picked up his heart problems!
good luck. if you don't have time for ab they will give some to your child after

I too am GBS+, am 38 weeks today.

My understanding is that once waters have gone the the chance of infection rises, so it woulkd make sense that keeping the waters intact for as long as possible is a good thing.

I am planning on stapling a brief summary of my birth plan to fron tof my hand held notes.

I am going to ask that internal exams be kept to a minimum (again to reduce chances of 'pushing' infection closer to baby- no idea how scientific this is!).

Am also going to state i do not want waters bbroken unless I have had at least one dose of A'B's and there is also a good reason to do so. I think it is more than fine to let the 'professionals' know what you want in advance as long as there is a two way process of communication and you are open to modifying your birth plan if needs be.