Group B Strep?

[jennyapples]

Hi guys, I'm not sure if this has come up before, so my apologies if it's one of those repeat topics!

I had my 38 week appt at the birthing centre today and it was great, except I asked about testing for Group B Strep and was told that it's not tested for. I asked what happens if I have it and the midwife said, well then you can't use the birthing centre because of the complications.

I asked, but how do you know if I can't use the birthing centre if you don't know if I have it? And she was a bit stumped.

I also asked what happens if I have it and the baby gets it, and she said it's a quick decline and possibly meningitis.

EEK

Friends in other countries have all been tested and the ones who have it are hooked up to IV antibiotics to minimise risk.

This is something I've randomly decided to be worried about (of all things). Am I going crazy?

You can get tested privately, although I'm not sure if 38 weeks gives enough turnaround time

www.gbss.org.uk/sub_sub_section.php?section_id=3&sub_sub_id=21&sub_id=121&content=ECM%20test.%20Where%20&%20how?

My little boy had GBS (he was luckily fine) we were in hospital for a week, lumbar punctures, chest x-rays and hooked up to strong antibiotics. It was discovered by pure chance, they found it on my placenta and then tested him for infection 3 days post birth (we were still in hospital) and discovered he was poorly before he developed any symptoms.

Personally, I'd get tested.

noble is right.

I used one of the companies listed on that website and they were really fast (obviously you need to return the culture asap).

I think about 1/3 of British women have it when they go thru childbirth, so it's really not the main risk factor in catching the disease (because so few babies get it). There are risks in the automatic IV antiBs, too. Just suggesting you research a bit further.

Okay thanks guys. I've done quite a bit of reading and it seems very hard to quantify the risk. I've asked my GP and she said I should get tested privately - which is fine, but it just seems strange that if the GP says it should be tested, that it's not tested on the NHS.

I think the biggest thing I'm worried about is that I really want a non-interventionist birth in the birthing centre as is the plan, due to how much safer it is from lower infection rates and less unnecessary intervention, but if I test positive then I can't go there.

It's a difficult one.

Thanks for your help.

Well yes indeed, sometimes knowledge is restriction not power.

I think I came up with a very tiny number when I looked at the risk (DH's work colleague nearly lost a baby to GBS, so I got myself privately tested). Like 0.3% of all births the baby might get ill, and that was only if mother did have GBS and other risk factors were met. That's why I think it's so important to consider all of the other risk factors.