“Edward was delivered by emergency caesarean section after my placenta separated from the wall of my womb during labour. He was put on ventilator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Lewisham Hospital shortly afterwards but a week later, the doctor advised me to let him go. To be told your beautiful baby has die is a pain you cannot imagine until you’ve experienced it. After his death, the doctors explained I had been carrying (Group B Streptococci) GBS which killed Edward. As I researched it, and discovered how treatable it is, I just couldn’t believe Edward had died for the sake of a simple test and some antibiotics” (Fiona Padden, 40)
“My water broke 5 days before my due date and I gave birth normally the following day. During labour there was protein in my blood and I had a temperature-both indicators of GBS, although I didn’t know at the time. I gave birth to my son Zach in August 2015, but he developed bacterial meningitis and died 12 days later. At first I wracked with guilt. The GBS had been in my body and I had passed it to him. I should have known about it and stopped it hurting him. Losing Zach had been devastating but to learn he could so easily have been saved was unbearable” (Shaheen McQuade, 25)
The above are testimonies of two mothers who had lost, what would be their precious gem, to GBS infection, and the most regrettable thing was the fact that these premature death could have been prevented.
Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a bacterium usually found to inhabit the intestine, vagina and rectum without causing harm in healthy people. It estimated to be present in about 25% of all healthy adult women. Although a normal inhabitant of the vagina, GBS can cause fatal infection in neonates or infants.
Neonatal infection occurs primarily when GBS ascends from the vagina to the amniotic fluid after onset of labour or rupture of membrane, although GBS also can invade through intact membranes. Infants can also become infected with GBS during passage through the birth canal. Approximately 1 in 200 babies of untreated GBS carrier mothers will develop sign and symptoms of GBS infection. Babies may experience early or late onset of GBS infection.
Early onset GBS infection occurs more frequently than Late onset GBS. Signs and symptoms occur within hours of delivery and these include; sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis which are the most common complications, breathing problems, heart and blood pressure instability, gastrointestinal and kidney problems. On the other hand the most common symptom of late onset is meningitis which can be contracted during delivery or in contact with a GBS carrier. There are, however, symptoms that may indicate the high risk of delivering a baby with GBS in pregnant women and these include, GBS present in urine or swabs of vagina during current pregnancy, previously had a baby with GBS infection, high temperature during labour, premature labour or rupture of membranes prior to 37 completed weeks of pregnancy and rupture of membranes or water breaks 18hrs or more before delivery.
According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG), it is recommended that all pregnant women get a routine GBS screening at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy or 5-3 weeks to delivery. A pregnant woman who tests positive for GBS and gets antibiotics during labour can feel confident knowing that she has only a 1 in 4000 chance of delivering a baby with GBS disease. Conversely a positive test of GBS in pregnant woman who does not get antibiotics at the time of labour has a 1 in 200 chance of delivering a baby with GBS disease.
Therefore the next time you make an antenatal visit to the hospital, be sure to have yourself tested for GBS if you are due because it is a silent baby slayer in pregnancy.
By Christian Adofo (MLS)
Sources:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.cdc.gov/groupbstrep/index.html
- American Pregnancy Association. americanpregnancy.org/pregnancy-complications/group-b-strep-infection/
- Daily Mail Online.
