Whenever a doctor or midwife suggests a procedure or intervention you can make an informed decision to accept that procedure, or you can decide not to have it. It's your choice. A helpful question to ask is, "Do the benefits of this procedure outweigh it's risks?"

Your body, your baby, your choice.

There are many things that are suggested to us, in regards to pregnancy and birth, that are more of a routine way of dealing with things than an actual specific response to our unique situation.

You might want to do some reading about Group B Strep and the routine treatment of it with antibiotics. Some women decide that the benefits of using antibiotics during labour do not outweigh the risks.

There is a great article about this issue that you can find if you do a google search for an American magazine called Mothering. Once you get to their site type "GBS" into their search box and you will see an article called "Treating Group B Strep: Are Antibiotics Necessary?"

In addition to the risks they mention regarding the use of antibiotics, there is also the loss of freedom of movement during labour that being connected to an IV creates. Not being able to move freely around during labour can then lead to other interventions that you might be hoping to avoid.

The interesting thing about GBS is that you can be tested one week and have a positive result and then be tested 2 weeks later and have a negative result. So some women choose not to be tested because just because you had GBS present in your vagina at 36 weeks doesn't mean you will have it there at 40 weeks or 42 weeks.

Also, semen has antibiotic properties - so enlisting the help of your partner the night before the test most often returns a negative result the next day.