First time mum - tested positive for group B Strep at 37 weeks - what next? Grateful for any advice and reassurance.

[ChampagneSupernova]

I was told about this by a friend and was feeling anxious about it so took a private test. Then I got my results by text (very scarily all it said was "RED = POSITIVE"

I've done a search here on MN and a lot of what I've been reading is rather scary.

I have spoken to the midwives at the hospital who said that I should be okay to continue with my preference to labour in the midwife led unit rather than the labour ward and that they'll be able to adminster the IV antibiotics there and that they'll keep me and the baby in for 24 hours afterward for monitoring .

Is there anything else I need to/should know?
TIA

No words of help I'm afraid but is this something that all new mums should look at? Is the test not available to all pregnant ladies on the NHS? Sorry for the hijack of your thread and hope someone is along shortly to help you out.

Hi FP - It's not a hijack, it's a bump (congrats on your pg by the way)
It's not available routinely on the NHS but yes, it is something that all new mums should look at, as 30% of women carry the infection at any one time.
The private test costs £32 - test needs to be done between 35 and 37 weeks. more info (some of it q scary from
www.gbss.org.uk/
HTH (and bump for me!)

Yikes! Going to look at now. Only 25 weeks myself at the mo so thanks for the heads up

you will need to have iv antibiotics in labour, at least 2 hours before the baby is born, if you get this, then the baby should just need observations for 24 hours, if you deliver less than 2 hours after the first dose of iv antibiotics then the baby is likely to need iv antibiotics for at least 48 hours

No, test can only be taken privately at a cost of about £40 I believe. Good news is if identified you will be given antibiotics during the labour & baby sb fine. There are campaigns about to make test available on NHS as can sadly be life threatening to baby. You're V Senisble & lucky to Know in advance I think.

Don't worry about this Supernova. I've had 2 labours GBS+.

Your first labour should be long enough for you to get the IV ABs, and it's great that you can still go to the m/w led unit.

The only thing they may be (unnecessarily) iffy about is waterbirth. It's worth pushing for one if you want a natural birth. They really are wonderful.

Spending 24 hours or so in hospital after the birth can be really reassuring and they can provide a wealth of advice about feeding, changing, bathing...

I'd recommend you read the patient's guidance on the RCOG website. It may put your mind at ease. Good luck!

well it is very good that you have found out that you are positive - i was a carrier too, and found out inadvertently when i bled at 36 weeks. the tests should be free and compulsory - i have a friend whose baby died at delivery because she wasn;t identified as a carrier.

However, so long as the hospital is aware, you will be fine. tell absolutely everyone you come into contact with when you arrive for labour - i wrote strep B positive in huge letters on the front of my file as well, so that no-one can miss it. i was put on an IV drip, not massively comfortable but such a small thing in comparison to what is going on. the only thing is that it restricts your movements somewhat - this didn't bother me, as although i had planned an active birth, when i came to it, i just wanted to lie down anyway.

i had it with both my daughters, and had two fabulous births, just had a bit of gas and air. they vaguely threatened to keep us in for 24 hours afterwards, but because the midwife was coming to see us at home anyway, they let me go home quite quickly.

Don't worry about it, so long as you get your drip, you will be grand. Good good luck with it all!

Hope this helps.

I tested positive for group B strep as well. Does it mean I won't be able to use water for pain relief / have a water birth?

wibbley, depends on the hospital. some have ridiculous policies on GBS+

Group B Strep

Also... the baby doesn't need to be away from you whilst being monitored and getting IV. They may well want to take baby to special baby care but it's up to you.

About half-way down the page here as well:
www.nctpregnancyandbabycare.com/info-centre/articles/view/11

So glad you have found out early. Our hospital mismanaged our second - my waters broke but nothing happened, the swab came back positive, but communication broke down somewhere along the line and they failed to give me the antibiotics (and I didn't know at that stage that I ought to be having them. I am soooo much wiser now). Result: I mentioned it casually at discharge and ended up rushed back to the "transitional" ward

Labour with the IV is not great, tbh, but I found it more of an issue during the first stage as there was so much going on during the second stage I barely noticed.

It may be worth finding out what your delivery unit's policy is before you go in. In our local hospital, which is a major teaching centre and vvvvvvvv jumpy, the delivery unit/birthing unit only have the very largest IV tap thingies on the unit - they argue that if they have to put a line in, they're going to make damn sure they can re-use it if they need to give you a transfusion. I have terrible veins and bruised quite badly.

Grit your teeth! The fact that the tests aren't given routinely is appalling, but the protocol for prophylaxis is pretty sound. Good luck!

Christina's link

Thanks all - am much reassured.

i had kidney infection when pregnant had iv antibiotics and 4 hrs later gave birth to my ds

12 hrs later they come in with blind panic observing him telling us to keep an eye on his breathing as they found i had group strep b

my goodness 12 hrs it took forthem to tell me but luckily as i had kidney infection didnt feel lucky was in serious agony for 2 weeks but my antibiotics were 4 hrs before ds was born correct time line so he was perfectly fine

as long as iv antibiotics given all should be fine thank god for kidney infection as 12 hrs anything could of happened

glad you done that privately as i urge any mum to do it then antibiotics vcan be given and all outcome is usually positive

but if hospital took aslomng as mine to discover it and i hadnt hadnt had antibiotics outcome could of been fatal

im urge anyone to test privately you should be perfectly fine as they will be well aware of procedure and my ds luckily was perfectly fine

I also found out I have GBS after being admitted to hospital with bleeding earlier on in my pregnancy. I have since found out that 2 girls I know also had it but didn't find out until the babies fell ill. They were both absolutely fine as they were treated (not sure what with or whatever) straight away (also not sure how GP realised they had GBS) but at least if you are tested for it and know you have it then you will be able to get the antibiotics yourself during labour.

I read up on GBS when I was diagnosed and was really upset at the worse case scenarios mentioned, however at least I know I have it - I had never heard of it before so wouldnt have thought to go for private screening anyway and if I hadn't bled a few weeks back then I would never have been tested at all!!!

Good luck!!!! Hope it all goes really safely and smoothly for all us GBS carriers and our LO's!!!

Government response to petition on universal screening. Usual sort of weasel-speak but there are a few links that might be useful.

Yeah - one to be aware of. My sister did the test and all fine - although positive - set for IV during labour. Around her due date, she called her midwife to ask about discharge she'd had different to before . They said not to worry. 2 weeks later when they were trying to induce her (after shed gone into labour voluntarily!!!!) they decided that her waters must have leaked slowly for the previous 2 weeks - hence baby open to infection. Although over 8 pounds, Josh was then in SCUBU very ill for 2 weeks!!! They never admitted it, but didnt come up with any other diagnosis and it seemed a little bit of a coincidence that they had cocked up re. the Strep B!!!!!!!!!