Best friend waters broken and postive for Group B Strep

[ceasar04]

My bestest friend has just been admitted to maternity unit after testing positive for Group B Strep.
She's 40 + 6 and waters went yesterday so she went in where they examined and swabbed her, had no contractions so they are inducing her now (original plan was to induce tomorrow)

I'm a bit worried as it took 24 hours for results to come back and they really should have induced her last night.

Does anyone know if this delay will make a difference to outcome?? Or is it only bad if totally undetected??

Thanks x x

Hi,

Try not to worry, your friend will more than likely be given antibiotics throughout the labour. She will also stay in hospital for 48 hours after giving birth so that they can monitor the baby. I would have thought that as over 24 hours have passed between her waters breaking and giving birth they may want to give the baby antibiotics directly too. This may result in a longer stay in hospital.

Obviously it's best to catch these things early, however, don't forget that thousands of women will give birth carrying GBS, not knowing about it and be absolutely fine. There is only a small chance that your friends baby will catch the infection and even then it may not cause them to be ill.

Hope all is fine.

Thank you NTFM.

Group b Strep search online produced some scary stories!!!

Not heard anything yet from her, but excited to meet the new arrival.

Thanks again for replying x

my understanding is that the group b strep infection (which i had too) lies in the birth canal (ie vagina). and so the risk to the baby is when it travels through the birth canal not before. the reason they tell group b strep women to go in when your waters break is to increase the chances of you having the antibiotics in your system for more than 4 hours which is the minimum for them to be effective. i guess this is in case the labour progresses quickly as there is no way of knowing how long it could be.

so as long as she has the antibiotics 4 hours before she actually gives birth she will have the same level of protection as any other woman.

hth