Close to my heart.

I apologise if this seems political, or too passionate. I was tested positive for Group strep B in pregnancy. I came across the test by sheer chance. Quite randomly I picked up a parenting magazine and took it home. Normally I would not have bothered. 

In this particular issue there was a detailed article on Group strep B. I had never heard of it, it astounded me and left me a little fearful. Consequently I researched the condition , finding the American web-sites more useful and informative.  

The fact is that a mother carrying GBS can have a still birth at 5 months, miscarry, have a baby born with Cerebral Palsy and much more.

The test is not available on the NHS, infact in many surgeries the information is not even available. The test  cost £35 to do privately, was totally painless, and freaked me out with a positive result! 

Several midwives at the hospital tried to persuade me to "forget about it, because so few babies get it" !!!! Fortunately I had done the research. As soon as my waters broke, I was taken to hospital and given IV penicillin. This was repeated throughout labour to prevent the baby becoming infected.

There is a danger, admittedly, that the mother can go into anaphylactic shock from the high dose of penicillin. The worst part is that although GBS does not affect you or your health in anyway,but it is always a risk in subsequent pregnancies.

As a result we, as a happy and thank God, healthy, family, now subscribe to the GBS foundation to try to spread the word. The latest was to petition MR Gordon Brown to try to get all pregnant women screened for free on the NHS. The response is below.

If the government will not do anything, then I must try to reach out further. Hopefully by reading this you will mention it to any pregnant friends and they will be able to get them selves tested. Nobody needs the unnecessary trauma of losing a baby, a still birth or a handicap that could so easily be avoided. 

Just for information, in the ward where I gave birth,  the previous day baby had died. The post-mortem showed that the "unknown cause of illness" was GBS.

Here is the link for the test.

http://www.gbss.org.uk

follow the links on the left hand side to testing for GBS.

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Offer all women the chance to be tested for Group B Strep.”

Details of Petition:

“It is estimated that approximately 1 out of every 1,600 babies born in the UK and Ireland develops early-onset GBS infection. This means that every year in the UK (with 700,000 births per year) around 440 babies will develop early-onset GBS infection. GBS infections can cause blood poisoning (septicaemia), infection of the lung (pneumonia) or infection of the lining of the brain (meningitis), and each of these can be life threatening. Sadly, even with the best medical care, 1 out of every 10 babies diagnosed with early-onset GBS infection will die (approximately 44 babies a year). However, if pregnancies at increased risk of GBS infection are identified and appropriately managed, most early-onset GBS disease in newborn babies could be prevented.”

· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage

Read the Government’s response

The Government takes this issue very seriously and has every sympathy for families whose newborn babies suffer from life-threatening GBS infection.

Current policy, based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), is not to offer routine screening for GBS to all pregnant women because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the benefits of doing so would outweigh the harm.  For example, there are concerns about the potential adverse effects from the increase in the use of intravenous antibiotics, especially amongst women who are at low risk. 

In line with the RCOG guideline on early onset (EO) GBS infection, healthcare professionals are encouraged to use clinical risk factors to identify women whose infants are at increased risk of developing EO GBS infection.

The UKNSC has carried out an extensive consultation on its policy in respect of screening for GBS, during which stakeholders and members of the public were asked for their comments, including at a stakeholder workshop held on 12 November 2008.