Currently, pregnant women in the UK are not offered routine testing for Group B Streptococcus (GBS or Group B Strep), unlike in many other developed countries.
Group B Strep is a normal bacteria carried by 20-40% of adults, most commonly in the gut, and for around 25% of women, in the vagina, usually without symptoms or side effects.
Most pregnant women who carry GBS bacteria have healthy babies; however there is a small risk of GBS passing to the baby during childbirth.
If a baby develops GBS infection less than seven days after birth, it’s known as early-onset GBS infection and symptoms will usually show within 12 hours of birth.
Symptoms can include:
- being floppy and unresponsive
- not feeding well
- grunting
- high or low temperature
- fast or slow heart rates
- fast or slow breathing rates
- irritability.
Most babies who become infected make a full recovery, however the infection can sometimes cause life-threatening complications, such as:
- blood poisoning (septicemia)
- infection of the lung (pneumonia)
- infection of the lining of the brain (meningitis)
- deafness or blindness
- serious learning difficulties, including Cerebral Palsy.
Around one in ten babies born with GBS will die from the infection and one in five will be permanently injured.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have released new guidelines recommending all pregnant women who go into premature labour receive antibiotics to prevent their baby contracting GBS.
If a woman has tested positive for the infection in a previous pregnancy, further testing will confirm whether antibiotics are required during labour to prevent their baby contracting the infection.
The guidelines also state that pregnant women should be provided with information about the condition and be made aware of the potential risks to their baby.
