Group B Strep - are you privately testing?

[Tryingandhoping2020]

I’m thinking that I will get tested as the stats are a little scary. USA and other countries test routinely but NHS doesn’t

Would appreciate other people’s thoughts?

I did.

Not fun shoving a swab up your arse heavily pregnant, but one less thing to worry about afterwards.

@LividLaVidaLoca has summed it up perfectly 😂

@LividLaVidaLoca I did mine yesterday… and I have to say I was like “Jesus, I don’t remember it going up my butt last time!” 🤣🤣

First pregnancy, my midwife recommended it. This time, my midwife was pretty dismissive… but it’s only £30ish, so I would rather do it for the peace of mind!

You can order it from TDL - you just email them, they post a kit out, you send payment details back along with the swabs. It’s not that pleasant, but I’d rather have the peace of mind!

I did. My midwife got the hump about it as it 'wasn't necessary', luckily I did though as I tested positive.

I think testing for Group B strep is more complicated than it first appears. A large proportion of women will test positive. Of these, only a tiny fraction will pass it to their baby during labour. However, if the NHS knows you’ve tested positive, you will need to have antibiotics during the labour (and I assume this rules out giving birth in a midwife led unit but would need to check that).

When the NHS last reviewed it, it recommended against universal screening because if we screened all women and routinely gave antibiotics to those who tested positive, we would be giving antibiotics to over 130,000 women per year, of which 99.75% would not have needed it as their babies would not have been infected anyway.

This article explains it very clearly: www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/potential-harms-of-gbs-screening-outweigh-benefits/

So yes, private testing may give you peace of mind… if you test negative. But in this case, it may genuinely be better not to know.

Please do the test. I was very tardy at ordering mine - got it ordered at 37w but went into labour with PROM and delivered my baby before results were returned. It turned out I was a carrier and my baby developed GBS induced sepsis. She spent nearly 2 weeks in NICU/SCBU as a result. For £32, it's worth informing yourself and then having a conversation with your midwife to avoid our experience. Baby is now 2 months and doing well, but those 2 weeks were the absolute worst of my life for something that could potentially have been avoided.

TRIGGER WARNING*

Eh? I'm on a on the GSB Facebook page and there's far too many stories on their of babies who died due to GSB. It's not at all harmless and leads to unnecessary deaths.

A woman having 1 extra set of antibiotics in her life is no big deal at all, antibiotics are given for loads of things that are less important.

I tested positive (I actually had antibiotics antenatally as it was present in my urine) but didn't have time to have them during labour. Because of this the doctors kept me in am extra day to keep am eye on DD and once they were satisfied she was ok (and told me the symptoms of late onset GSB) we were off on our merry way.

That was in repsone to Central London Pregnant, not the lady above me.

I decided against it. I was extremely anxious about GBS as a very close family member had a third trimester loss due to it.
I talked it over with various health professionals and basically was told that as the infection can come and go very quickly then there’s not a huge point in doing it unless you plan to test daily. You could test negative one day and be positive the next etc.

Each to their own though - I can completely understand why people test. It definitely should be routinely tested for!

I gave birth in a country that routinely tests for GSB and I tested positive. They gave me two massive shots of antibiotics during earlyish labour through a catheter sort of thing in my hand. I was free to move around and give birth as I pleased. Other countries are very proactive about GBS.

I did and I am glad I did as it came back positive. My waters went early, before my planned section, so I was given IV antibiotics straight away.

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know my story.

I tested privately for group b strep at 37w which came back negative. Fast forward 3 weeks and I was induced as a result of reduced movements. Baby was born and turned blue on feeding, turns out he had group B strep. He was fine after 10 days of neonatal and antibiotics but please please don't just take a negative as if you haven't got it. Just know what to look out for when baby arrives . (High/borderline temp, grunting when breathing, tummy going really far in when breathing, nostrils flaring, colour being off) xx

My pregnancy with my son who is 9 now picked up right at the end of my pregnancy GBS from my urine sample and then was tested. I had IV antibiotics during labour and he was fine. I'd much rather have a drip during labour than risk my baby. I'll be tested again in this pregnancy.