Group B Strep Awareness

[dancinglorna1984]

Hello, I am just over 37 weeks pregnant and expecting our first baby very soon.

This month is Group B Strep awareness month and to be honest we were not really aware of this at all until recently. Unfortunately, we only discovered the seriousness of this infection very recently as some of our closest friends sadly lost their much loved Daughter due to this at just a couple of weeks old. It is so sad to know that this could have been prevented if a simple test was offered.

We have just ordered a private test for this infection as I want to know that I have tried to get tested for this prior to our baby being born (as long as time allows that is).

As the NHS do not currently offer routine testing for this infection there is currently a petition on change.org which was started by another couple who also lost their child due to Group B Strep to try and get the government to consider offering testing.

I am posting this thread in the hope that it may share a bit more awareness on this topic and also in case anyone would like to sign the petition to hopefully get this issue heard and change things for the better (link below)

www.change.org/p/nhs-provide-tests-for-group-b-strep-to-prevent-any-more-avoidable-deaths-of-newborn-babies

Thank you for reading, dancinglorna.

I plan to speak to my midwife about this later in the week at my next appointment to share our concerns, hopefully our private testing kit will be arriving tomorrow. The lack of consistency in what is offered via different areas is quite interesting.

Bobian I also have "the sticker" on virtually every page of my notes so I think my trust must be taking it more seriously.

It's true that many people are carriers and status can change over time.

Nhs do test at booking in, but only a urine test, which has a high false negative rate (often tells you wrongly that you don't have GBS). Swabs (vaginal & recital) are much more accurate. NHS dont do swabs as judging the overall population, they don't want to give everyone Iv antibiotics (reduces resistance to abx in the population overall, and statistically low risk if transferring to baby).

But, if you do get a positive swab test from 35 wks (either tested due to symptoms, or private test) then NICE guidelines do advise Iv abx when you go into labour.

Whilst I don't personally like having swabs taken I would have been quite happy to for this reason if it had been offered.

The problem is also that booking in appointments vary in terms of what is completed in my experience, I know this from talking to people who live in other areas who have had different experiences.

Since I started this thread I have heard from a few people that they have only found out they have GBS by accident and I don't feel this is good enough.

I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that our friends are going through in preparing for the funeral of their child and hope that this gets taken more seriously by the government. One can only hope.

Sparky, that's interesting. Can you give a link which backs that up? My midwife said that the urine test would show if it was a more systemic infection.