Group Strep B Advice

[WineandDine]

I recently asked my GP if the surgery screens for GBS and was told yes & advised to have it done at the same time as my Whooping Cough vaccine - at 32 weeks. Stupidly I hadn't looked into the advice re best timing for the test (ideally between 35 & 37 weeks) and went ahead with the test at 32 weeks.
The result has come back positive which means my midwife has suggested IV antibiotics during labour. This also means that I can't use the local midwife led birth centre as planned.
I can of course deal with the above as the health and well being of my baby is paramount however I am also really concerned about the implications of giving antibiotics to the baby so early in his/her life.
Has anyone else been in a similar position, I.e. where they tested early for GBS? I know the bacteria can come and go so I am unsure if I should retest around 36 weeks. With that in mind, a huge part of me is thinking that I would be crazy not to have the ABs if it has been picked up at any stage.
This is my first baby and just feeling a bit overwhelmed & scared.
Any advice greatly appreciated x

Mine was picked up at a similar time to yours, but as I gave birth at 36 weeks it was a good job I hadn't waited. Perhaps retest at 36 as it comes and goes?

Thanks AbbeyRoad, I hadn't considered that - I.e. if the baby comes early.
Did you have the Abs during labour then? Congrats on your little one.

I ended up with an emcs so no labour, but they monitored DS for a few days (they were doing that anyway, but another thing they were checking for). I think he might've had antibiotics but I'm really not sure what happened. Sorry not helpful I know!

I tested positive for GBS during an unconnected test at about 28 weeks with DS
I had never heard of it until midwife rang to tell me. Did scare me a bit tbh with stories of what can happen if undetected/untreated and of course it meant a "natural" or home birth was out of the question.

Had intravenous ABs at 39 weeks as soon as my waters broke. There was no sign of any contractions so did involve a lot of waiting around on labour ward.
But I was then induced to speed things up re. Risk of baby hanging around with GBS.
Not ideal to be hooked up to drip for 30 hours but the baby's safety was my main concern.

With DD I was in full blown labour by time I reached hospital and screaming for an epidural but I had to be hooked up on ABs before they would give it to me .

All well though, no problems post birth and they are now hefty, gregarious pre-teens!

I consider myself fortunate that we have such a wonderful health service for detecting and treating so many conditions ????????

Thanks Peppapissinpig - people can knock the NHS as much as they like but I personally also feel we are very lucky too. Just a bit frustrating/worrying that on this particular issue I had to request a test otherwise I would be non the wiser.

Glad to hear was and is well with your two!

I'm thinking there is no point retesting as I will always no that I have been a carrier at some stage (even if the results were different in a few weeks time) and for me its not worth the risk. Will just have to work around a slightly different labour plan but thats not important compared to baby arriving safely.

I have a feeling the policy regarding f testing and management of GBS varies from on area to the next. A friend of mine in another county tested positive but was told ab's weren't routinely given!??

I agree that it seems disturbingly arbitrary whether a pregnant woman is tested for GBS and that there is so little education in general, especially given the risks.

Best of luck am sure all will be fine

Problem with GBS is you can be positive one day and not the next. So how does the NHS justify cost of checking all women for it when it is something that comes and goes. They would be better off to give ab's to every labouring woman in case but that's also not practical. Its just one of those things that doesn't make sense to check for as nobody really knows when their labour will start.

Have you visited the GBS society website?
Statistically women who test positive at 36 weeks are likely to still be positive at birth. And the UK have more cases of post birth GBS than countries that do screen.
The NHS seems to have a kind of mental blockage about gbs. I don't know if it's because of the cost, or just bad training, but I personally was told that they don't give antibiotics unless you gave your baby gbs in a previous delivery. That's pretty shit given that gbs can kill or leave a baby severely affected.
I had to fight long and hard for the antibiotics, my diagnosis had been since my last pg, (16 years ago) I just didn't think it was worth the risk. You need a cannula in place, but you aren't attached to a drip the whole time at all. It takes a few minutes for the antibiotics to run in and I felt fine afterwards.
To be honest, I'd much rather be safe than sorry. You work so hard to get pg and through those nine months of gestation, it seems silly to risk everything for the sake of delivery suite birth. There used to be a regular poster on here whose dc was left seriously disabled by gbs.

My little boy contracted GBS during labour and was poorly for sometime after. I'm due DC 2 soon and will be having IV antibiotics in labour. There is no way I wouldn't. It was a tough start for both of us and I don't want to repeat that. I've got a sticker on the front of my maternity notes to warn the midwives!

You're lucky
Around here it's private screening only

My dd was born with group b strep. I hadn't been tested while pregnant. As observant midwife and antibiotics saved her life. Much better to be on the safe side - the early antibiotics don't seem to have had any long term adverse effects on her, so please don't worry about that. The alternative is far, far worse.

I had GBS and had the antibiotics in labour, unfortunately only 3 hours before baby arrived instead of the reccomend 4. And as waters had gone a while before I had him, e had iv aforementioned 48 hours. Not why I would have liked but GBS can led to such serious things in babird that I felt it really was not worth taking any risks and was happy to have the intervention that that doctors felt necessary. One of the doctors said to me that they do t was t to wait for baby to get sick before taking any action. Hope all goes well for you. X