GBS Pos and declining antibiotics

[bluetree07]

I tested positive for group B strep, started treating it at home (from the links i found on this site and others) with colloidal silver, bee propolis, probiotics, essential oils, olive leaf extract, vitamin C, manuka honey, and also chlorhexadine wash (hibiclens), and a tampon with diluted teatree oil.. A week later I was swabbed again and i have just found out it is still POSITIVE! my midwife knows i will be declining the standard treatment of antibiotics during labor (am i crazy?) and now wants to know if I will be happy to blood test the baby after he is born to check him for infection.

My dilema is this... If we test baby , and he is positive, he may not become symptomatic or sick at all from it! with my colostrum and our healthy immune systems, it may not be a problem. therefore the trauma and potential damage from antibiotics would be useless.

If he becomes symptomatic, shows any sign of being ill, OF COURSE we will give him antibiotics!!

I don't want him to have the blood test at birth for GBS.
I feel strongly about it but i'm also freaking out inside

Am i crazy! this is really hard decision to make.

[Little Chicken]

What sort of blood tests are they talking about? If it is a blood culture, if it comes back positive he will already be sick and showing symptoms. there are more general ones though that look for biochemical and heamatological changes generally associated with infection.

[bluetree07]

She said the blood test would be heel *****.

I've read that the risk of the baby becoming infected is 2 in 1000.

There is evidence that there are so many allergies in children because of their exposure to antibiotics :-/

[Ozziehoffy]

I think infection has to be from your blood? Could be wrong, can't remember... but I refused the test and also AB's in labour which is "protocol" if you don't test cos they assume you to be positive. They did say that as long as bub didn't get a temp within 24 hours he was fine... so I went with that and they did 4 hourly obs on him overnight and I went home the next afternoon I don't think you're crazy, but seeing as you know you're positive at the moment (doesn't mean you will be at time of birthing by the way) then if there seems to be a BIG possible risk at the time of birth for bub to get infected then I'd be doing what you're doing

[Little Chicken]

If it's heel ***** it will be the general ones. If these come back showing signs they may very well want to do a blood culture and that has to be from a vein.
While the risk of infection is low, GBS infection is devestating. If you don't want the blood tests maybe suggest extra monitoring of bub's temp, respiratory rate and heart rate post birth.
If the blood tests do need to be done, to minimise the trauma you can bf while it is being done, or if your hospital does this and you don't want to be there to bf, a small amount of 25% sucrose solution on the tip of the tongue releases pain killing endorphines in the brain. It really does work, I have seen babies sleep through IV insertions and even lumbar punctures after having it.

[Beautitude]

I declined the GBS test with ds2. I was positive with ds1 but after speaking to my midwife we decided to not even test with ds2. I'm sure most of my bf issues with ds1 had alot to do with the antibiotics he got during my labour. Anyway when ds2 was about 24 hours old he started to have bile in his vomit and as he was so unsettled they sent him to neo nates. He had blood cultures and when the paed did his rounds he thought he just had a bit of a headache (his blood cultures looked ok) but when he found out I hadn't tested for GBS he found something in the blood cultures and all of a sudden he might have GBS! So he ended up having the antibiotics till the blood culture came back ok and he was taken off them. It's a hard call to make as in my experience they are very cautious with GBS so if you consent to the test they may think that just the slightest thing may be GBS. My midwife said that if your child had GBS it will be very obvious quickly. We ended up with a week long stay in neo nates which in the end was nothing more than a headache from a ventous delivery!

[Lily Dust]

Forgive me if I'm wrong here BUT my intention was also to decline a drip should I test positive to GBS we were going to a vaginal douche (sp?). I think it had to be squirted in via syringe every hour during active labour....might be worth asking about to avoid any antibiotics you dont want and being pushed into something you dont need. This may be totally even what you mean but I thought I'd share anyway

[bluetree07]

Just an update --- I've found out that only 2 or 3 percent of babies get sick from being born to an untreated GBS positive mother, a large portion of those are with respiratory problems which become apparent really quickly (and is cleared up with IV antibiotics)
Babies are often infected with GBS but since the mother has passed on antibodies to it through the placenta and continues to do so with her colostrum, a healthy full term breast-fed baby without any other risk factors has a really good chance of fighting off the infection without any issues.
The risk is so low that they don't even test pregnant women for it in the UK (like they do here and the US).. and the UK does not have a higher incidence of babies being sick with GBS infections, the statistics are the same.
There are different strains of GBS, and at least one of these is already resistant to the antibiotic they use to treat it, so it wont work anyway.

i'm not trying to push my views upon anyone here, as its a highly personal thing to decide to decline standard medical tests and treatments, and a hard decision at that!

I just want all pregnant women to be more aware and EDUCATED about the truth of these things! Do your own research and decide :-)

Just a foot note : with my first pregnancy I tested negative for GBS. I had premature rupture of membranes (36 weeks) for an extended time (3 days) and I got a temperature and had IV antibiotics on a drip in labour, and my son had respiratory distress and was in special care unit for 3 days on IV antibiotics. They could never confirm that it was because of GBS because we'd already started antibiotics before they could do blood cultures, but it could have been GBS. So i know somewhat of the trauma it can create. everything turned out okay and my boy is perfectly healthy.

[MummaBear79]

With my first baby, I was swabbed for group B strep at 36 weeks and it was negative. I went 10 days overdue with him and ended up having an emergency c-section after prolonged labour and him getting distressed. Within 2 hours of him being born, he was struggling to breathe and he was ripped from my arms and rushed off to NICU where he was diagnosed with group B strep. He was a very very very sick little boy and I almost lost him. He had to undergo antibiotics (via drip), lumbar punctures, several days in a humidicrib and I was unable to hold him or breastfeed him. We spent just over a week in hospital. I know everyone has their own opinions, but please hun, dont dismiss antibiotics. Its much much easier than what I had to go through. Although the risk is slim, its still there. I had antibiotics for my next two boys and will do again for this baby...there is no way in the world I would go through that again. xx

[Jellyfish]

I know a lot of Private Obs don't routinely test even here because your status can change. I was never tested.

[BellyBelly]

Its easy, there is a study or a cochrane review out recently showing the use of antibiotics is not beneficial as a precaution in labour.

It messes with the babies gut flora too.

My Ob never bothered testing, as it is transient, so you may not have it at birth. In which case he would give antibiotics if the baby was high risk - prem or a labour with waters broken for a while.