Group strep B

[H_m_t]

I’ve heard a lot about group strep B recently and have ordered the test asi know that the NHS don’t test for it necessarily. Does anyone have any experience of it? I’m going to ask the midwife this week too. I’ve just heard that it can be so dangerous for the baby!

[ChrisWest1983]

I made a post about it when I was pregnant but no replies.

Anyway - I did the test - £35 is worth my worries- it was negative so I was confident to give birth vaginally.

I spoke to midwives about it but they said they don’t test and bushed it off. Where I come from all pregnant women get tested and if positive then get iv during the labour....

[H_m_t in reply to ChrisWest1983]

Thank you for your reply! Yeah I’ve heard that so many other countries test for it! £35 for piece of mind is nothing is it!

[Fowey2009]

Every pregnant woman should know about Group B Strep. The charity groupbstrep.org.uk has loads of info on its website

[GBSSadmin]

We completely agree that all pregnant women should be informed about group B Strep. We also want to see all pregnant women offered a GBS-specific test late in pregnancy, but unfortunately - unlike most developed countries - the UK doesn't offer that.

If you'd like more information about GBS, do get in touch. We have an information (co-badged with the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists) which you might find helpful - you can read/download it from gbss.org.uk/wp-content/uplo....

And, if you want to test but don't qualify for the ECM test within the NHS, you can buy these tests privately (for a list of organisations that offer the ECM test, the test described in the RCOG's national recommendations, go to gbss.org.uk/info-support/pr....

Hope that helps - our website is gbss.org.uk/ if you need more info., or just get in touch

[H_m_t in reply to GBSSadmin]

Thank you so much!

[Hidden in reply to GBSSadmin]

Hi there. I've read that the home tests are not totally reliable in that a positive result will be accurate, but 50% of negative results can actually be positive. Could you please clarify? Thank you.

[GBSSadmin in reply to Hidden]

Hi JoJo - It's the actually the other way round. The 'standard' non-specific test that's all too often done on the NHS for GBS carriage misses up to 50% of women carrying GBS at the time the swabs are taken.

The ECM test methodology, recommended by the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, and described by Public Health England's UK Standard, is the method used by the organisations offering private ECM tests listed at gbss.org.uk/test.

And in terms of positive results - you don't usually find something that's not there, so any positive result means that GBS was present at the time the swabs were taken.

For more about the different tests for GBS, see gbss.org.uk/info-support/pr..., and for still more information, click gbss.org.uk/info-support/pr...

Hope that helps

[Jmww01]

when i was pregnant and enquired about it i was told that the NHS don't test for it as the results can be inconclusive as when you're tested it could be positive and then the following week it could be negative - vice versa. it would only be truely helpful during labour as if you come back positive at that point they give you antibiotics. definitely get your midwife to expand on it though, mine told us we could get the test for our own piece of mind and told uswhere to get it from but other than that it wasnt necessary.

congratulations on your pregnancy, me and mine wish you luck x

[GBSSadmin]

I'm afraid the science doesn't quite back up what your midwife told you, though it is a very common myth. While GBS carriage status can change, that typically happens over periods of months (rather than days or even hours). This is why when testing for GBS is done in pregnancy, it's usually recommended in the last 3-5 weeks of pregnancy (so 35-37 weeks), which means the carriage status is unlikely to change, as well as giving sufficient time - usually! - to get the results back before the baby is born. Countries that have implemented this approach have seen their rates fall substantially.

We'd agree that a test you could do in labour would be brilliant but, as yet, there's nothing that is fast enough, and accurate enough and at the right price (it's much more expensive than lab/culture testing). Plus there'd be all kinds of logistical issues that would need to be addressed (when do women come in for testing? What do you do with all those who are negative - send them home? Keep them somewhere?). It will be really interesting to see what happens!

One day, there'll be a safe and effective vaccine that will prevent more cases of GBS infection than any other prevention strategy - we can't wait! But in the meantime, having good quality information about group B Strep, and being able to make informed decisions about what is right for you and your baby, has to be the best way forward

[Emilylouise-]

Hi I had step b when. I was expecting my 4 th baby midwife rang to tell me they had detected it and I was given antibiotics to take I also had to have a hospital birth and stay in hospital 16 hrs after my son was born so they could monitor his breathing heart rate etc he was fine and is a healthy 2 year old

[Imo93]

Definitely worth it! Babies can be so sick with it GBS I've seen so myself as I worked in a neonatal unit and the sickest babies had GBS or delayed onset on GBS! I payed the £35 for peace of mind, definitely worth it in my opinion.