You would not be higher risk for having GBS by going into early labour, or having long labour with waters broken - your baby would be at higher risk for actually contracting it. Preterm babies and those who have been exposed to the bacteria for a long time in labour are those who are more likely to get sick from it.

Here's the info that I have on it, as best I can summarize it: GBS is a normal bacteria found in the gut of about 30% of the population at any given time. It comes and goes. Generally, it causes no issue for mother or baby, but, in approximately 1 in 4000 births with a GBS positive mother, the baby becomes very ill with GBS (roughly 1 in 12000 births, then?). Meningitis is a possibility, and for those who do become sick, there is a substantial risk of death.

So we're talking about pretty small numbers of those who would actually be affected, but relatively high risk, if you know what I mean.

In the US, the push for universal GBS testing of all pregnant women came from the women. Mothers who had lost babies lobbied for this to become standard practice, so that it wouldn't happen unnecessarily to anyone else.

The current practice here is to administer IV antibiotics to the GBS positive mother in labour. This ensures that the baby has antibiotics in his system when he is born, and can fight the infection if he contracts it on the way out. The mother must complete the round of antibiotics 4 hours before birth, to ensure that it has fully circulated in hers' and the baby's systems. Oral antibiotics are not effective for this, but I've read of an IM injection being used in some areas, that is effective for 30 days.

To swab a mother in labour, as far as I know, would be relatively useless, because I think it takes about 48 hours to grow a culture from a vag swab, and so they wouldn't have any results until well after the birth.

My midwives also allowed me to do the test myself, with careful instructions. I appreciated that!