I have GBS - really worried

[dinny]

Just found out today I am a carrier. So no homebirth for me Feel so scared for my baby - what if the IV antibiotics in labour don't work?
Also, I really want a natural birth - does this treatment plan mean intervention is likely?
I've looked on the GBSS site but just need some words of wisdom from the people on here. Thanks, Dinny

dinny, I can understand how worried you are about this, I was found to have GBS when in labour with DS1, I had IV antibiotics during labour, when DS1 was born he developed jaundice within the first 24 hours and was whisked away for a blood test, turns out everything was OK, it was just ordinary newborn jaundice. I thought nothing more of GBS until I was pg with DS2, I found the support group on the net and was shocked at how dangerous it can be (cried for weeks, then found Mumsnet where all the sensible people calmed me down). When I went into labour with DS2 I asked for the antibiotics straightaway, the hospital however refused to give me them until I was in established labour, this resulted in them trying to stick a needle in my arm minutes before I pushed DS2 out (labour was much quicker than anyone imagined it was going to be). I doubt the antibiotics reached him, I was allowed home the same day but not before I was told by a snippy midwife that I shouldn't be getting out at all and she didn't agree with the midwife who said I could go. My Community Midwife however was very supportive, told me to sign myself out if they wouldn't let me away (was only in hospital to have the IV antibiotics, really wanted a home birth), obviously at the first sign that anything was wrong we would have bundled DS2 in the car and taken him straight back to the hospital for treatment.

I think you are right about once positive always positive. As you said earlier as well although it is worrying at least you know and can take the action needed to protect your baby.

Demented, one of my fears is that labour is too quick for the iv to be effective. The mother is supposed to receive antibiotics for 4 hours prior to the birth. That is not always possible though as you clearly demonstrate. Dont know the naswer to that.

The most dangerous thing IMO isn't actually the GBS - its ignorance about GBS. When I had dd I'd heard tiny snippets about GBS on here but didn't pay much attention because I didn't know much about it and naively thought I'd have been warned if it was relevant. The first I really found out about it was about 3 days after dd was born when they told me they'd tested both of us (didn't tell me at the time) and it had come back positive for GBS.

Then followed 2 weeks of battling with useless doctors, having a hell of a time bf'ing and worrying myself sick - and THEN we got out of hospital. And after 6 weeks I had to give up bf'ing altogether because dd just couldn't take to it.

The most important thing is that you know as much as you can beforehand. If I were you I'd insist on the antibiotics anyway because you have tested positive, but it is really worth getting the extra test done because its so much better than the NHS one.

You also do need to be prepared for bf-ing problems - not saying worry about it, just be aware. I wasn't that well prepared for problems and the midwives were useless, so I really wish I'd known more and made more of a fuss. They let dd just go hours without a proper feed and weren't worried about it, whereas if I'd put my foot down and made them give me some proper help, dd might have got on much better with bf-ing.

Message withdrawn

Sorry to hear the frightening times lots of you have been through.
Wobblyknicks, how did it affect bfing? I am so scared it will have implications - I had awful probs with dd1 and SO want it to happen this time. Would really help me prepare if you could tell me what may go wrong.
Bunny2, my fear is labour being too fast for IV antibiotics - esp as I bet I encounter someone on the frontdesk of the labour ward who won't take me seriously. Do I go to hospital at first twinge? DD1 was a six-hour labour.
Demented, I've been scaring myself stupid reading about it on the net.
Podmog, I'm too scared to have a homebirth now.
Does having GBS make anyone else feel a bit tainted and guilty for something in you putting your baby at risk? I mean, where the hell did it come from? Am sure - with hindsight - have had it since dd1's birth as ever since then I have been plagued by thrush every month at ovulation.

dinny, you're doing exactly what I did, please don't scare yourself, look how many of us here carry it and have produced healthy babies. At least you know and can choose to have the antibiotics.

bunny2, the frustrating thing is I was in hospital early enough and I asked for the anitbiotics straightaway but the hospital told me I would have plenty of time. As it was DS2 was just getting into launch position and when labour took off they barely had time to get me to the delivery room.

Out of six of us in my NCT group, three have B Strep. The other three haven't been tested so who knows...

Do I just get to labour ward and demand IV at my first twinge? My first labour was fast - worried this will be fast too.

Can you drive in early labour?

thanks, Demented.

A question - please please someone tell me that having IV antibiotics in labour doesn't mean being monitored/made to lie down????!!!!

Message withdrawn

dinny - the main problem, as I said, was my ignorance. DD was bron in the evening after a day in labour and even though I had all the food etc with me, I only ate 1 kiddie box of raisins the whole day because I just didn't want anything. So I'd gone from about 7pm the previous day to that evening with basically nothing to eat, and when I'd had dd I had a bath and then was given 2 pieces of toast, which don't exactly hit the spot when you're exhausted. So right from the start I was jusg plain knackered.

I more or less expected dd to just latch on and be away and wasn't prepared for would would happen if she didn't. The main problems I'd heard about were things like mastitis, not being able to get into a routine etc - not your baby not wanting to feed.

She was put straight to feed after she was born, like I'd asked for but she wasn't that bothered and so she didn't get much then. Then, that night she just wanted to sleep and every time I woke her up to feed, she'd feed for about a minute then go back to sleep and it was really hard to wake her up again. The mw said she was probably just tired and that some babies didn't feed much in the first 12 hours. So it was more or less left to the next morning.

Then I felt a bit less tired but the whole hospital experience got me down and the mw's were really unhelpful. DD was very reluctant to feed and all the mw's just said leave it another hour, leave it another hour, then just as it was getting to the time when they should do something, the shift would change and it would start all over again. Eventually they admitted she wasn't getting enough to eat and they tried cup feeding her but she fell asleep just the same, then one mw fed her using a syringe like a dropper, which worked wonderfully but none of the other mw's would do it because there was no hospital code for doing it!!!!! And whenever I tried to insist on it because it was the only way to feed her, I just got told that if she wouldn't feed properly they'd have to tube feed her!!!!

We had to stay in for two weeks because dd had jaundice and then when they finally found she had GBS she had to be on antibiotics for 7 days (this isn't always the case, it was just because it had been left so long). The antibiotics made her sleep more too, which didn't help. To this day I honestly don't know how dd got through those 2 weeks as well as she did because she must have got so little milk into her.

They had to heel prick her a lot for the jaundice tests and I also managed to insist they did blood sugar tests at the same time and these were always very low, showing it wasn't just my paranoia. If they'd been more 'on the ball' I'm convinced they would have tube fed her because all the signs were there that she wasn't thriving properly but they were so useless that they just ignored everything.

I started off having loads of milk (leaked all down my top etc) so I could express loads of the stuff to feed dd with but one day one of the mw's decided the machine was going too slowly and turned it up without giving me any warning and IT HURT!!!! So that made bf-ing even more difficult because after that it hurt to latch dd on. And because dd was taking so little and the machine was taking less and less, I think I started drying up which didn't help!!! Finally when we left hospital, dd had lost just over 10% of her birth weight and they wanted to keep her in longer until she put it back on but I insisted that we were going home, no arguments.

The we finally got out of hospital but dd never took to bf-ing properly. I went to all the classes, tried different postitions etc but she just wouldn't put on weight. Then I started doing top-ups with formula and she started really thriving on that. She still wouldn't take to bf-ing though so in the end (after lots of support from here) I had to change to bottles totally else I would have lost my mind.

The main things I wish I could have done differently are;

1. Expressed as much as possible as often as possible to keep the milk supply up - not just expressed enough to feed dd.

2. Kept a much better routine of waking dd every couple of hours instead of trusting the mw's and going with what they said (which sometimes left it up to 5 hours).

3. Got dd on antibiotics as soon as the GBS was found instead of waiting like the doctor advised.

4. Eaten far more good food. The hospital food was rubbish (whats new) and it would have been much better for me to have had some food brought in and eaten like a horse (blow the diet for those few days) to keep my strength up.

5. Gone with my gut instinct and insisted on more help from the mw's. The ones in your hospital might be wonderful and give you all the help you need but if they don't - you HAVE to insist they do, even have a tantrum if that's what it takes. The first time I actually got any real help was when I broke down in floods of tears after a mw told me dd would have to be tube fed and told me how horrible it would be for her (and she refused to get her boss for me so I pressed the call button until she did). If you're not happy you have to do what's best for you, don't feel embarrassed about being awkward - sometimes that's what it takes.

Don't let my experience scare you though, just make sure you get all the facts before you need them, thats all. Your experience might be totally different - everything might go smoothly, you never know.

Sorry for the essay - HTH!!!

Wow - didn't realise I wrote so much!!!

The overwhelming point is though - make as much fuss as you want, don't be shy about doing it. In most situations, someone making loads of fuss is annoying but this is the one situation where you should do it and not feel guilty.

If you want something done - shout and scream (if you have to) until it is - whether thats the IV antibiotics, help with bf-ing, anything. You and your baby are the only things to consider so whatever you want, put your foot down until you get it.

Wobblyknicks, your bf exp is so similar to mine with dd1 - she was pre-term but not in neo-natal. but was so sleepy and just wouldn't latch on. They did her blood sugar testing for 72 hours and I cup fed her but the on the 2nd night the night-duty mw called the paed as sugars had dropped and he said give her a bottle. I just had no help/support from the mws really. I so wanted to avoid a hospital birth this time Still, my doula will be with me and helping me. Hopefully. Thanks for the advice - sorry you had such a hard time.
Podmog, thanks for info - do you mean mark my notes in red pen? My waters didn't break at all last time - had them ruptured at 9cm to hurry things up. But this time I will not let anyone break them - best for baby to stay in the bag as long as poss, isn't it?

Message withdrawn

Thanks for your post, Podmog. Our due dates are very close - mine is 5th Sept. But am preparing myself for an earlier delivery - dd1 was just under 36 weeks. Really want to go to full term though. Legs crossed

My community mws are so lovely. They also work in hosp so may get lucky and get one in delivery. Not counting on it - last time the agency hosp midwife was awful. But this time I have a doula - really hoping that will make it less stressful (she used to be a midwife before becoming a doula and is lovely).

I'm booked at St George's in Tooting. Very good medical care but the hosp mws seemed so busy last time. Apart from worrying about the baby's well-being I am terrified that I won't be able to breastfeed. it sounds so selfish but failing to bf with dd1 triggered such bad depression I don't know if I could handle it again. Nearly crying now thinking about it (not good, am at work).

Your experiences are really helpful to read. Thanks so much for taking the time, Dinny

dinny - as you've got a doula, you should get more support but you really have to be ready to make a hell of a fuss if needed. That's the one thing I did wrong - I wasn't bl**dy minded enough. Next time (if there is one) I'll be tearing the place apart if I don't get things the way I want them and I think that's the one place in life where it's right to do that.

You feel like you're being so unreasonable in hospital if you make a fuss, don't you? Really hard to stay strong when in that environment.

Message withdrawn

Oh, I so hope I can do too, Podmog. Where are you having your third baby?

Message withdrawn

ok- haven't read all of the posts on this thread so don't know if I am repeating things.i will just tell you my experience.
I am gbs + and was with both my boys.ds1 i laboured in the pool and then gave birth to him while kneeling on beanbags on the floor.I had no anti-biotics.I stayed in hospital for 48 hours and both me and babs were fine.I breastfed him until he was 10 months old.
DS2 I did have anti biotics.they took about 20 mins to go through the iv and were then tied off.I spent all my short labour standing up /walking around and again gave birth to him on beanbags on the floor.I had no pain relief apart from gas and air.I am still breastfeeding nearly 11 months later.He was fine.I am just writing this to let you know that yes,gbs is serious and we do have to take precautions.But it doesn't neccessarily mean a managed,interventionist birth with no luck breastfeeding.Ask to see your consultant and get her/him on your side.make a birth plan and put it in a very visible place.Good luck, hope this helps.

What is GBS? When is the baby due? There must be people around who can reassure you that all will be OK. Love to you.

Dinny - I had GBS although they didn't realise until after DS was born, so I didn't have any antibiotics.

After he was born, he was closely monitored and was fine. As it is known that you have GBS then having the antibiotics means the chance of your baby getting it are much lower and I am sure that your baby will be monitored.

It must be frustrating not being able to have the home birth though.

Not sure on the intervention front.

And also Dinny I think that at least 25% of women have GBS, so we're not alone.

Just saw that you're due in September - I think (although I'm not 100% sure) that you should have another test at about 37 weeks as although you are a carrier, it might not be active when you give birth, in which case there wouldn't be a risk to the baby. Someone else will hopefully know more than me.