Home birth and Group B Strep- anyone positive went on to have a HB?

[needahand]

I might be Group B Strep positive and am very disappointed as I was planning a HB. I was wondering if anyone had the same sort of experience.

Thanks Maxbear your post is very informative and enlightening. Glad to know your DCs are fine

pregnabrain - they told me I'd need to stay in for between 24 - 48 hours after the baby's born.

I'll have to stay 12 hours if I managed to get at least two injections of antibiotics. I will have to stay longer (along the lines of what Rolf indicated) if not.

Wow. That's a long time in hospital. I'll definitely ask the midwives what the policy is here and let you know what they say...

This thread is making me realise I never gave it a moment's thought when I had dd2. I just assumed that antibiotics were the best thing, that they would work and that my baby wasn't at risk because I'd had the antibiotics.

I'm having my next baby in October,andam planning a home birth (as far as these things can be planned!) and I will discuss this with my midwife.

The main side effect of the antibiotics was that they gave me a rather nasty case of thrush.

Just got back from MW. She basically said they don't like you to have a homebirth with GBS and that I would need to stay in for 48 hrs after hospital delivery. She said they don't like you having a waterbirth as they want to do continual monitoring and all the bad buzz words were setting alarms off in my head.
I spent the half hour after the appt in hormonal floods of tears all over DH.
Am I being pigheaded to not want ABx and not want to go to hospital at all, unless of course its early or something.
Also she wants me to get a prescription for antibiotics now from my GP as GBS in urine can increase the risk of early miscarriage, I'm 13+4weeks atm.

Continous monitoring for gbs??!? What a load of rubbish.

It can be more of a problem if you have gbs in your urine and it is definately worth getting it sorted out asap.

Belgo in the hospital I work in if you have had a previous gbs swab in a previous pregnancy but the baby was well you are not even recommended to have IVabx anymore due to the risk of reactions. This changed about 6 months ago. They also don't recommend testing in women who have had it before and gone on to have a healthy baby as the risk to the baby of getting it is so low.

As for staying in for 48 hours afterwards, most babies who are going to become severely ill with gbs will do within 12 hours of the birth, if you have had iv abx then the risk is so tiny. 25 - 30% of all women will be carrying it in their vagina's at any one time, yet we don't know who they all are, so I personally think that the keeping people in thing is a bit ott unless there are specific concerns.

Belgo I bet I will have the side effects too
Yorky I have done a lot of reading and spoke to my consultant about a waterbirth as I felt it was bad enough giving up on the HB I don't wan't to give up on the waterbirth too. There is absolutely no reason why you can't have a waterbirth and why you would need continuous monitoring either. You don't even have to be on the bed to have the AB administered to you. You might not even be still positive when you reach 35-37 weeks. In any event if they persist with denying you a waterbirth, I would try to speak to other local hospitals to see if they are more supportive. You have the choice as to where you give birth.

And the decision whether to have AB is yours to take and yours only.

However if GBS has been picked up in urine apparently you do need AB now.

Yorky - the abs for GBS in urine is standard, I think.

I've got quite worked up about the whole GBS thing this pregnancy, too. What has really helped me was a sympathetic consultant who is supporting my wish for a natural, active delivery. She's happy for me to use the birthing pool too. IMO continuous monitoring during labour is OTT. And if it's via a head clip then it's actually going to increase the risk to the baby. I'm sure it's not part of the RCOS guidelines anyway.

You are all lovely
I had such a wonderful natural delivery with DS and I could just see the MW taking it away a piece at a time while we sat in surgery, then adding monitoring and I had visions of monitoring and being stuck to the bed and it taking longer because I was stressed as have never spent night away from DS so them wanting to interfere more..... vicious spiral.
I am very interested in what maxbear says about previously having had a healthy baby despite +ve GBS as one thing the midwife said was that I should give up on another HB or waterbirth ever again as once you've got GBS it stays with you (she wasn't that harsh but thats how I felt) Also she thinks that my waters may have gone early with DS because of GBS even though I didn't know I had it, they went over a day before he arrived and I remember the MW swabbing his eyes and ears after delivery to check something - presumably in hindsight- for GBS, but he was fine. Will the results of those swabs be in his notes?

Yorky,

I hope my post doesn't upset you.

I was GBS +ve last labour and was forced to lie on a bed, with drip, inducement drugs (my natural labour stalled once I was forced into hospital) and had a terrible experience.

However on a positive note, I know to fight my corner and this time things have to be different.

I am having a home birth and I will be retested for GBS at 36/37 weeks. This is important as strep B comes and goes, a bit like cold sores. So if you don't have a positive colony at 36/37 weeks you will be clear at term.

There are things you can do to discourage strep B infections like garlic up your fanjo and other such delighes (search strep B on Mumsnet)

Also recent studies have shown that there is no reason to refuse a water pool if you are strep B positive.

And another study showed that AB in labour do not affect babies who have fatal GBS infections (i.e. THe worst strains are resistant to AB)

Unless I have another factor like PROM or early labour before 37 weeks, even if I am positive, I am aiming for a home water birth with no AB.

If I am forced into hospital, I am taking my husband and doula and a pair of sissors to cut the end of the Continous Monitoring device if they bring it anywhere near me.

ALl the best and I truly hope I haven't upset you.

not read all the thread however with gbs while most babies will be fine if they do get gbs they can be very very sick - my understanding is that monitoring for it is useless as it tends to come and go and a negative screen before delivery does not mean you are negative at delivery - i'm not sure that there are major risks to the antibiotics other than possible maternal reaction to them - if that happens of course it can be very serious, however the antibiotic given is a penicillin and most of us have been exposed to a penicillin in childhood so would know if likely to react or not

about home births and gbs the antibiotic can be given either intravenous or intramuscular - the latter is not pleasant at all but still effective, although intravenous works faster - so if midwife not keen on giving intravenous may be happy to give intramuscular every 4 hours as necessary - having said that most mw should be happy to administer drugs intravenous

don't see why water birth should be an issue - gbs does not necessitate maternal monitoring during delivery - do need to monitor baby afterwards - usually for 48 hours - i'm gbs positive and didn't want to stay in hospital so did temperature and respiratory rate ourselves at home knowing we'd be able to reach hospital within 10 mins if we needed to

I assumed that becuase I have been fine with penicillin in the past, I would be fine in the future. But a midwife told me that an adverse reaction to antibiotics doesn't work like that - you can have one even if you've been fine in the past with the same antibiotic.

I find the NHS policy on GBS very confusing and illogical. It makes it very difficult to make a decision doesn't it? I have been thinking of declining abs unless there is another risk factor, but I just don't know if I'll be able to follow that through.

hi rolf - yes mw is correct but that is very rare - ask her what the chances are! i think it's more important to treat any possible gbs

Babieseverywhere - your last labour sounds like everything I am scared of having done to me this time. Thank you for being so honest and you have not upset me at all. I really hope your homebirth goes to plan and you have a much better experience than last time.
It is so reassuring to be among people who don't think I'm being spoilt/selfish and putting the baby at risk

Me.

No...sorry, hit the button at the wrong time...and bf ing too a very awkward girly!
I am GBS+ and had water birth. The help and support you get can depend on the knowledge of your team really. There shouldn't be any reason why you can't have antibiotics administered at home, but it depends on training too. Mine were given by a doctor, not midwife, so it may be worth asking around and doing some research. hope this makes sense.

Right, baby in bed, can now type properly - and think.

I was booked into the maternity unit for Dd's birth and had a phone call from the midwife telling me I was GBS+. They had found this through a smear test 2 years+ before! but not told me...? I did as much research as I could on the net and info from hospital. My consultant told me I could go ahead with my water birth too, but that I'd need to have the ABs at the start and every 4 hours throughout. I had two injections through a cannula and it was great that we had mints with us, because the taste is unpleasant(it goes straight to your mouth for some reason). As for monitoring, my MW had me hooked up on the bed whilst telling me that she didn't think I could have a pool birth with GBS and me telling her that Mr Consultant said I could. She did check and confirmed that I could. She couldn't get a trace from baby during a contraction, because I just could not stay sitting back at an angle, had to sit forward(how does anyone give birth on their back?). Kept the cannula in until I'd birthed baby(I think)or it may have been just as I was between contractions in the pool, but I only got about 25 minutes in the pool because of MW messing around with monitor and checking pool etc.
I had Dd at 17:15 and she didn't have a temp check at all! I had to stay in merely because it was against hospital policy to let baby out before being checked by a paediatrician and it was Boxing Day and too late etc. At no time did they check her for anything at all...
The only bad thing that I've had due to IVABs is that I've had 5 occasions since her birth where I've had internal breast thrush, which is extremely painful. Dd had it slightly in her mouth too at the beginning.
Incidentally, if I were ever fortunate to have a third baby, I'd definitely go for a home birth.

Babieseverywhere, I've only ever heard of the garlic up the fanjo for dealing with thrush.

I had StepB which showed in my urine so had to have ab, and i was ridiculously worried about it throughout my pregnancy.
Mainly through seeing what strep b can do.
A friend of mine has a child who has severe cerebal palsy from an undetected strep b infection.My baby had 4 hour checks for 48 hours. I had no infections due to the IVAB
That was with mysecond baby, the first i was non the wiser, didnt even know about GBS and had a less stressful pregnancy.

Solo, As I said search on Mumsnet, there have been several recent links about treating strep B with garlic.

Shame I wasn't more into MN a couple of years ago then...but, all's well that ends well. Healthy Dd.

northernsoul, I was none the wiser with my first baby too...frightening really when you give it some thought. What might have been etc. Lucky us eh?

In addition to the garlic, I am also drinking echinaea. Not sure it will make a difference though. Yorky, really there is no reason why your should be hooked to a monitor. I firmly intend to unplug mine or ask my IMW to kick a fuss after 20mns.

I know solo, once i knew i was a carrier i tried to get some information from my surgery etc. There was nothing

I understand that a lot of the time it is harmless and the NHS dont want to cause an air of panic, but i think every mum to be should be made aware of it and from that they can then make an informed choice of whether to pay for a test or not.