Group B Strep advice please

[Mummyofmax]

Hi all
I am pregnant with my second (34 and a half weeks) and have a four year old son. When I was pregnant with him they found I had group B strep after a vaginal swab at 36 weeks ish. I was told all about it then and had anti biotics in labour and all was fine. I was told at the time I would always be treated for this in my future pregnancies as a precaution as it can come and go a lot.
I'm now battling my midwives with this as now advice is they dont test for it anymore. I have managed to get a test done (urine sample) but it was sent back after a normal dipstick test so now have to re do it.
Reallly hard to get hold of my midwives so have booked in with the doc instead.
Can anyone let me know their experiance/knowledge please?
xx

There was a thread about this quite recently - legally blond started it. It is currently on page 5 of this forum(sorry, rubbish at doing links). Thread was called "Are you 35-37 weeks pregnant, or coming up to...".

I have literally this morning done my own test which I got privately over the phone (the earlier thread will tell you where to go) It's really easy to do, they send you a pack, you send off two swabs (vaginal and rectal) with £32 and get the results in two working days.

My NHS midwife says they don't offer the test due to cost, but she said, in response to my question "it wouldn't be a bad idea to do the private test" which is not what I was expecting her to say, I thought she would be quite negative regarding the validity of it. The accuracy of the private test seems pretty high - but I guess you need to read the info on the website and decide for yourself though.

I believe that once the infection shows up in your urine you would already be feeling ill, so the vaginal/rectal tests are more sensitive and likely to show up the infection earlier. I did my test at 37 weeks exactly to give myself the best chance of still being positive or negative at the time of birth. Hope this helps.

Read this thread.

You should get the test on the nhs due to yr status last time. If yr mw is unhelpful, are you booked in at hospital- call their triage and ask

I have group B Strep which was found after a test was done as a routine at my booking in appoitment. It was found in my urine. I did not feel ill at all so not sure what auburnlizzy means. Something like 1 in 3 people have it without knowing anything about it. I was given antibiotics and then will have them in labour too. I was told that I would not need treatment in any further pregnancies....not sure if thats right though?!

thanks all
will see what doc says. does anyone know how long the urine test takes? my surgery dont know!! x

The test isn't routinely done, not because of cost, but because there is no evidence that it would help to screen everyone. The risks associated with the antibiotics (allergic reactions, reduced immune responses, possibly higher rates of asthma, etc in the children when older) may outweigh the very few babies who would be prevented from getting GBS from birth.

The GBS Support Group has info for if you'd have it in previous pregnancies (which doesn't mean alot afaik) - www.gbss.org.uk