Knowledge is power most of the time. But I have heard about people who look up medical information online and end up going way over board and freaking themselves out for no reason. We this past weekend I ended up at labor and delivery for an infection. I was treated and sent home with instructions on what to do at home to take care of myself. While I was there I had to give a urine sample and was told that they would call if they found something but did not feel I need to wait the hour for the results.
Well today I get a call from the doctor that I saw this weekend. My urine sample came back with GBS+. Now for those of you that don't know what that is, it's Group B strep, or Group B Streptococcus (GBS). Most pregnant women will get tested between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy. This is done by a swab of your girl parts and the other end :) a urine sample is not common practice of testing for GBS. I feel very lucky that I was tested and they found this. After doing some reading online today, and being told by the doctor that I'm now at an even higher risk of passing this on to my baby girl I'm a little freaked out. I have seen first had what can go wrong with GBS in an infant during birth. I used to care for a little girl who contracted GBS from her mother during birth and developed red meningitis, she will never be able to care for herself. She is severely mentally retarded and physically handicapped.
After doing more reading online today I found out this is more common then Downs Syndrome, Spinal bifida, and the number one cause of life threatening infections in newborns since 1960. I feel that most doctors and midwifes blow this off, they will tell the mom that they are GBS+ and will need antibiotics during labor and birth and leave it at that. When really there is so much more to it then that. Please if you are readying this and are pregnant or know someone who is pregnant show them this information, not to freak them out that something WILL go wrong, but so they have the information to make the best choice for them and their baby. Knowledge is power, and in this case more knowledge the better since most health care professionals don't seem to give that much information about this.
http://www.groupbstrepinternational.org/info_main.html
http://www.childbirth.org/articles/GBS.html
http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/group-b-streptococcus.htmlThese are just a couple of the web sites that I have gathered some information about GBS on, there are lots more out there.
