GBS+ Has anyone refused antibiotics?

[Yorky]

Why? and how much pressure where you under to have them?
I am GBS+ and want to go ahead with my planned homebirth without antibiotics as I believe I was a carrier with DS and he was fine but community midwives aren't keen
Thanks

Dragonbutter - I know exactly where you're coming from with reliving experiences every time you see a GBS thread.

I knew I was a GBS carrier (chose private testing) and chose to have IV antibiotics when my waters broke (term baby, uncomplicated pregnancy).

3 hours later I was critically ill with GBS septicaemia. DD was delivered by emergency section, apgar of 2 (fortunately just because I was so poorly, although she had antibiotics her cultures were all negative for GBS).

You could look at this story as a reason not to have antibiotics - after all I ended up very poorly despite antibiotics. They were also the right antibiotics - the group B strep my blood cultures grew was sensitive to penicillin. However, I think things would have been far worse without the antibiotics and I also think DD would probably have been affected more.

Logically, I know all the pros and cons of antibiotics, and about the possibility of allergic reactions etc etc. Emotionally, I still feel tearful when people talk about group B strep.

It was me who had a home water birth with IV abs given during labour. I'm in Belgium,and the midwives are trained to do this, and I don't see any reason why UK midwives shouldn't be trained to do this, and I think some of them are.

The antibiotics were put in very quickly and I didn't find the drip painful or a hinderence.

My waters didn't break until dd2 was born, and the birth was very safe. The midwives were great, regularly coming back after the birth to check me and the baby, and they also gave me their home phone numbers to use if I was worried - even in the middle of the night.

The antibiotics did give me a nasty case of thrush, but I was expecting this and treated it very quickly and fortunately it didn't pass onto my dd2.

I have looked into the option of the garlic clove, and I would prefer to have antibiotics and close monitoring as I just don't like the idea of the garlic, I don't know why not. I am hoping for a homebirth this October with the same midwives.

I would have been upset if dd2 had had to have the antibiotics.

smileyhappymummy - i had GBS septicaemia too. I was very ill, but because i was so focused on my baby I didn't really get how ill i was. I later found out that the doctors were very concerned that i wouldn't make it either.
It's difficult to understand whether we were very unlucky or very lucky to have survived relatively unscathed.
I think physically, i took about a year to recover. The two weeks of IV antibiotics followed by weeks of oral antibiotics completely wiped out my system and it took a long time to feel healthy again.