Group B Strep 101

Sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia, stillborn, blindness, deafness, mental retardation, cerebal palsy

I've been reading way too much about GBS on the internet lately. It weighs heavily on my mind these days. What frustrates me is people’s lack of knowledge about it. Granted it's rare for complications to arise, when they do, they can be very serious with lifelong complications, or death. This one girl wrote about how her Dr prescribed her an antibiotic during her pregnancy but she didn't take it because she thought it was "no big deal". I still feel annoyed when I think about that post.

So, to make myself feel better, I thought I'd throw some GBS education out there...

“Group B Strep is a bacterium that causes life-threatening infections in newborns. GBS most commonly causes infection in the blood (sepsis), the fluid and lining of the brain (meningitis), and lungs (pneumonia). It can cause babies to be miscarried, stillborn, or die after being born. Some GBS survivors have permanent handicaps such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy.” Link 1 below

There, does that sound like "no big deal"?

GBS is a bacterium that your body naturally produces. There is nothing you can do about it, other than to treat with antibiotics when it shows up. Even then, once done with treatment, your body can naturally produce more. Normally, GBS is not a threat to the newborn until labor and birth. After the water breaks, the baby is most at risk of becoming exposed. Some babies might appear fine for a few days, and then develop late-onset GBS. Please, if you have a newborn who is sick, call the Dr immediately! It can take their life within 24 hours.

For some woman, the GBS can travel through the membrane walls and get to the baby well before labor begins. "Many Group B Strep germs also make special molecules that can dissolve through the cervix, or the mucin between the vagina and the cervix. Many of these germs also make toxins, which can damage the baby and the placenta before birth." I quote this from an interesting article, GROUP B STREP: A Patient/Provider Approach for Optimizing Care. Link 2 below

In addition, a mother can become seriously sick if the GBS gets to parts of the body that it shouldn't. When I delivered Andrew, my uterus was inundated with GBS and my fever shot up to 106 within minutes. If not treated properly, this can be deadly to the mother as well.

GBS is serious. And I ever hear anyone I know say it’s "no big deal", you better watch out, I'll be coming after you.

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Link 1 - http://www.groupbstrepinternational.org/info_main.html

Link 2 - http://www.obgyn.net/women/women.asp?page=/pb/articles/gbs_part1

gbs update

I heard from the Dr’s office yesterday. My latest round of tests show that I have Group B Strep. This time it showed up in the urine. Of pregnant woman who carry GBS, only about 5% “are so heavily colonized that Group B Strep can be cultured from the mother's urine”. In other words, more than I had before. So, I started a new antibiotic today. The last one I was on upset my stomach so much that by day 10, I was throwing up. For most women, a positive GBS culture would mean antibiotics at delivery. That’s when the baby is at risk. For the few “special cases”, GBS can pass through the membrane walls and into the amniotic sac. That’s what happened with Andrew. GBS got to Andrew and the placenta, he couldn’t fight it, it turned into GBS Sepsis, and he passed away. I feel like right now, even as I sit and type this, I am at the same risk. I sit here, GBS positive, with a history of GBS passing through the membrane walls causing a stillbirth. As much as the antibiotic makes me want to throw up, I can’t wait to take the next dose.

her little mind

I was talking to Katelyn about the new baby the other evening.  She's been through a pregnancy with me before, she's heard all the talk about a little baby brother coming.  I'm curious how her little mind works.  So I said "you know Katelyn, when baby is born he's going to come home and live with us.  Won't that be exciting?"  She said "no, baby come out but he not come home".  I wonder if that's what her little mind thinks.  After all, that is what happened last time.

St Patricks Day

Yesterday we went to St Marks.  Katelyn picked something out for Andrew when we were in Disneyworld last month and I didn't want to leave it at his special place until the snow melted.  We took home the sled and snowman that decorated his place most of the winter. 

Katelyn shook up snowglobe and put it in place.

We also left an Irish cross, it was St Patricks day after all!

She then climbed up next to the niche and played with the little Caps zambodie that we left there.  It was precious.  To me, it was like watching them play together.  Him sharing his toy with her.  She pushed it around as if she were driving it all over his niche.

It made me smile.

nightowl

Adam and I have a nightowl.  Seriously, our girl does not go to bed at a normal time.  She's not cranky and acting tired at night, she's still happy and playful.   Just not tired!  My dad captured this picture last night.  Adam and I were in the basement watching Lost, thinking that Katelyn was actually in bed for the night.  We were wrong. 

Does she look tired to you?