Group B Strep

[paddythecat]

Hi all,

I have a routine vaginal swab at the weekend after attending triage with pains and pressure. My midwife contacted me today to inform me that the sample has grown Group B Strep.

I'm currently 30 weeks pregnant and wondering if anybody has experience of GBS before? I understand that it requires IV antibiotics whilst labouring. I was hoping for a homebirth but this is now off the cards but I am still able to use the midwife led unit at my local hospital.

I have googled and didn't realise the implications, although some being very rare of being undiagnosed and that this test isn't available on the NHS currently.

Thank you for any advice you can offer in advance!

*had a swab taken sorry, not have

My nephew was born to a mum with this, don't know the ins and out but I do know that they had to be kept in for a 24hr monitoring but all was fine.. possibly antibiotics..

The process certainly used to be 2 doses of IV antibiotics in labour. So, once your waters break/start contracting they would want to see you to make sure they get the antibiotics in to you (I think it was 4-6 hours between doses).
If the labour is too quick and they don't manage to give you both doses, then the baby will be given antibiotics when born.

Things may have changed, but in a few different trusts this was the policy x

I have this and midwife said yesterday that I could still have a homebirth! I’m not sure I will but it’s good to know. Or did they tell you outright that you can’t?

@melamine yes I was told outright that a homebirth is off the cards. That was with my hospitals homebirthing/community midwife team too. It was due to them not being able to administer the IV drip at home, your provider could be different though so maybe double check?

Thank you for all of your responses, hoping for the same type of birth with just the added extra of the antibiotics

I had it with my eldest. Had my waters start leaking at 36 weeks. Was kept in hospital over night and they burst my remaining waters. Ended up having my dd after an hour and ten minutes and after she was born they got the results back that I had Group B Strep. So we stayed in hospital to be monitored for three days.

With my second I was told I'd need the antibiotics but was only in labour for 45 mins so they kept us in two nights just to keep an eye on her.

With my third they swabbed me at 32 and 36 weeks and I was clear so was just treated a as normal birth.

My sister had the exact same. Waters went at 36 weeks. Came back positive for strep. But they didn't induce her within 24 hours and she ended up getting an infection and being rushed for emergency section. My niece ended up with meningites and they were both ill for two weeks. I'm not meaning to alarm you but to make you aware if your waters leak you need induced within 24 hours if you don't go into labour. They are both absolutely fine now by the way.

I enquired about testing for this with my MW at my last appointment. Was told that if I wished to test I could however to bare in mind that GBS using wears itself out in a 6 week period so a positive result doesn't mean you will be positive come labour and same for vice versa. Was given a few websites to look at and the occursnce of an early onset GBS infection in a newborn is 0.57 in 1000 so like 0.057%. Testing reduced it to 0.022% and that's not a big enough reduction in my books to warrant testing and risking no home birth. If your midwife is adamant that a positive means no HB I'd request a retest at 35/36 weeks by which point hopefully it will have worked itself out. My doctor on the other hand was seriously pushy on the matter of testing and really annoyed me x

You can request to be retested at 36 weeks to see you’re still positive then as you could be negative by the birth.

I also experienced pushy doctors on this matter, but I just went with it and had the IV antibiotics.

Sadly the MW led unit at the hospital was closed when I got there, but there was a pool available on the delivery suite which I was able to use despite the IV. It was a calm waterbirth with no other medical intervention, and I didn't even really notice the antibiotics - I was far too out of it with the pain of going through a back labour to care about it at all!

So, don't worry, if you can use the MW led unit you can still have a v similar experience to a home birth. The only thing different is that you may need to stay on the ward after for some monitoring. My baby was born at 4 am and we were out by 7pm the same day though, so not too bad.

Anyway, even with a home birth there is the chance you'll have to go into hospital for some aftercare.