Gutted, had positive Strep B result again, and expecting large baby! Help!

[wraighty]

Hi everyone, I'm 36 weeks with 2nd pregnancy and just been told I have srep b again. I'm gutted as had this last time with my now 2.5 yr old. I was hoping to go to birthing centre this time as had fairly rugh time at hospital with my first. Ended up being stuck to bed the whole time as had line in for strep b antibiotics and also for induction (waters broke so had to be induced), I was then strapped to a monitor for most of the time!! After 10-12 hours at 9cm they recomended an epidural as they thought it might help progress (being first time I went with everything they said stupidly), anyway after all the fuss of having an epidural whilst having full blown contractions, the epidural failed and I could still feel everything, I ended up having ventouse and episiotmy. I had a beautiful girl weighing 9lb 40z. I would never go down the epidural route again, and don't think they believed me that it didn;t work until I got up at walked along the corridor for a shower afterwards!!
I am scared of being strapped to a bed again for the whole of my labour due to the antibiotics etc and also the fact they estimated my babies weight at 6lb 10oz already. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has had experiences with strep b or large babies etc

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I was tested GBS+ in a smear test just before my pregnancy with DC2. After doing a lot of research and speaking to the midwifes/consultants at my local hospital I decided to test again right at the end of my pregnancy as I was hoping for a home birth.
The thing with GBS is you can test + one day and - the next. Did you do an NHS test or a private one? The midwife actually advised me to do a private home test as the NHS ones are not as accurate and there is a higher chance of a false positive. (Just google 'private gbs test, they cost about £30)
DC1's birth was fine, but it was in hospital and I had an epidural, and although it wasn't a traumatic experience, I wanted to feel more in control the next time and not be confined to bed/strapped to monitors.

I did a private home test at 38/39 weeks and it came back negative. The midwives were then happy to go ahead with a homebirth as long as I was extra vigilant for signs of GBS in the baby after birth. For me it was about weighing up the risks, pros and cons of having a less medicalised birth, luckily I had a lot of support from my midwives. I had a drug free home birth, which was a completely positive experience and a healthy DC2 (7lb 7oz..).

Will the midwives not consider letting you have ABs at the birthing centre?

If you search GBS on here there are a lot of different stories, both positive and negative. GBS Support Website is also full of lots of information. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy,and with making a decision about your birth. (Sorry if this is a completely rambling non-sensical post...severe lack of sleep!)

Thank you so much for your post, there is hope by looks of it. I am seeing midwife tomorrow and will ask her about retesting in a couple of weeks and about private tests.

Most birthing centres won't administer AB's and insist you go to hospital!

I completely understand about what you say about being in control and not confined to a bed etc

Thanks, I will let you knwo if any developments

Although I chose to give birth in hospital for various reasons, I think it might be worth you inquiring as to why birth centres won't administer ABs. My GSB antibiotics ie candula inserted, antibiotics administered, candula removed were done by a midwife, so I can't see why they couldn't do that in a birthing centre. My consultant popped her head in to say hello, but my whole delivery was managed by midwives.
good luck.

I had a private test for group B strep which one of the midwives said was a waste of time and it came back positive. I didn't like being in hospital at only 3cm because I needed antibiotics (and they struggled to get canula in so all photos of me and baby look like I got beaten up on both arms!)
The one thing I hadn't realised was that they would want to keep us in for 24 hours after the birth to monitor the baby for it, despite having had the antibiotics. I self-discharged (which took them so long that it was nearly 24 hours later anyway by then - literally) and they wrote it in DS's red book as if it made me a bad mother. I tried to argue that if I hadn't had the test privately that they wouldn't even have known, but they weren't keen to listen! They also wouldn't let me labour in the birthing pool because of the canula. Next time (which became a reality today with positive pregnancy test!) I will be afr more assertive but will still test for it anyway. I guess there are pros and cons but I like to be as informed as possible. Good luck wraighty!

I've no experience of Group B Strep, sorry, but i did have a large baby - 10lb 2oz, and my epidural(s) didn't work either. This time i'm hoping for a homebirth.

Hope everything goes well for you x

Thanks for your experience Bethylou, sounds similar to mine, couldn't get discharged either! I agree about being more assertive, I just went with everything they said last time and will try and challenge things i'm not happy with this time!
Congratulations on your pregnancy, hope all goes well, and no reason you won;t be clear of strep B this time. I'm going to do a provate test in a wekks or so to see if result still positive.