This week, we had our second session of group prenatal meeting. The main topic of the day was GBS or Group B Strep. I have maybe heard of Group B Strep, but honestly think I associated it with strep throat. Well it has nothing to do with your throat. No, GBS is a bacteria that lives in the gut. And 30% of women carry it in the viginal and rectal areas. Which poses no health issues to the women, but if you have a baby, the baby can get infected and there's a small chance the baby will get very ill and maybe even die.
The standard CDC and ACOG recommends screening all pregnant women at 35-37 weeks and that if she should test positive, for her to receive intravenous antibiotics during labor and delivery.
Our midwives are giving us the option to choose for ourselves how we want to tackle the situation. It's up to us if we even want to get screened. The main issue at hand is that receiving antibiotics during labor poses it's own risks as well. And so they really are letting us weigh the risks ourselves.
The problem with the baby being exposed to antibiotics is that there is bacteria that can become antibiotic resistant which poses issues for the baby later down the road, which can also be very serious. If I test positive there chances of passing it on to my baby are actually quite small (0.5%). But of course any risk is still a risk. Check this article I found which covers some of the things we spoke about at our meeting.
We talked about the different scenarios and options we had. And basically there's no right answer. The cycle of GBS life is about 4-5weeks which is why they test at 35-37 weeks. And that still doesn't mean you'll necessarily be a carrier at birth. One option is to test a little earlier and try to take measures to eliminate the GBS through diet. Although this is considered very alternative and there aren't many studies to back it up. But they did suggest eating fermented food, healthy bacteria and cutting back on carbs as GBS loves sugar.
The midwives are also able to lessen the dosage of antibiotics. Instead of being administered the dosage every 4 hours during the entire labor, they can give you one dosage within 4 hours of your delivery.
Let me just say that there is so much about this I'm not even touching on. But for me to attempt to explain it would be totally butchery of the subject. I highly recommend speaking to your healthcare provider about it and also doing your own research as well. It seems to be a hotly debated issue in the medical world.
I haven't yet decided which route to take, though I'm leaning towards what they called "a middle path". I'll let you know where we land.
Check out this article for more info.
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