There is no firm research to support or not support routine testing for group b strep. There are two current approaches used. The first involves performing a swab on each and every woman and treating all women who test positive to GBS with antibiotics during labour. The second involves just treating women who have certain risk factors - fever during labour and birth, or a baby who has previously had GBS.

Currently, most organisations are leaning towards treating according to risk factors, as opposed to swabbing all women, because it is more cost effective. The research indicates that you need to treat a very large number of women unnecessarily, as a result of swabs, to get the same result as treating according to risk factors.

So, in essence, the NHS's view is held up by the available research. We did not swab for our pregnancies, for this reason - even if we had tested positive, there is no guarantee that we would still be positive at birth.

Actually, hang on, I tell a lie. Victoria DID test with Olivia, and came back positive. She took a lot of homeopathics remedies to boost her immune system, and also went on a low yeast diet and added acidophilus supplements to help treat an outbreak of thrush she also had at the same time. when we swabbed later on, it came back negative. So once more, it shows that the value of routine swabbing is questionable (although it did prompt Victoria to try and combat the infection at the time).