35 Weeks & I'm Diagnosed With GBS

Remember what I mentioned in my last entry? I wrote that I do not suffer from any kind of infection which I can feel or see physically when I did my HVS (high vaginal swab) during my last hospital visit. How confident I was then! Silly cocky woman. Little that I know that I am one of those women in this world whom unknowingly carry Group B Streptococus in their bodies. Group B Streptococus (or widely known as GBS) is a very nasty bacteria which lives in human body and most of the time do not show any severe symptoms or ill effects and stays in the body without the carrier's knowing it. That's what happen to me. I don't know that I am colonized by it until my HVS result shows its existence in me.

I was ignorant and never knew about GBS before. During my check -up yesterday (8th April 2010), the doctor mentioned that GBS is a nasty kind of bacteria and can cause the baby to have pneumonia during delivery. She also said that it is a common type of infection among pregnant women. I was given a 5-day course of antibiotics (Ampicillin) to be taken 4 times daily. My doctor allowed me to keep my lab report and I saw that there were two bacterias identified in my HVS culture. They are Klebsiella Pneumoniae and Streptococus Agalactiae (Group B). Word 'scanty' was written right under the 'streptococus agalactiae' word.

Out of curiosity I did my own Internet search today about GBS. And the result is not so good.

Meningitis, pneumonia, high fever, septicaemia and death. What a terrible list of options for a child with GBS. A pregnant mother with GBS has the potiential to pass the infection down to her child during delivery and when it happens, all she can do is to watch her newborn baby fight the illnesses alone and prays to God that her little one survives the horrid blow. What sad situation it would be if that mother is ME.

No particular reason on how I got it. I may have it all this while in my gastrointestinal or genital tracts, and I never knew about it all along. I never had urinary tract infection in this pregnancy, no weird looking or funny odored discharge, and definitely never experience rashes or itchiness. My urine always come clean each time it was tested. According to the articles I read, sex has nothing to do with it and GBS won't be transmitted to your partner even when you have sexual intercourse with him.

So, yeah. I was devastated and worry myself sick this early morning. Bard called me up and asked me not to worry myself too much, as it may affect my pregnancy and my baby. I told him it's not easy to NOT to worry as it is happening to my body and my baby is in MY body. Received loads of consolations and prayers from friends after I posted my status up in my Facebook, and I'm so grateful and thankful to God for being blessed with such wonderful loving people around me.

After reading comments and experiences shared by mothers in rollercoster.ie, I feel at least 10-folds eased. I understand that my GBS infection is only at 'scanty growth' rate, or in other words: the colonization of GBS in me in very scarce or insufficient in quantity. However, my doctor didn't want to take any chances and therefore prescribed me with oral antibiotics medication even when I'm already at 35th weeks of pregnancy. I read from the articles on the Net that I should be having intravenous antibiotics during my labour and delivery to lower the risk of infecting GBS to my child. Having the baby delivered at premature state (before 37th weeks) will increase the risk of GBS infection. Having the water break at 18 hours or more before delivery will also increase the infection. C-section is believed to increase the infection risk too.

But all these can be managed and be avoided altogether.

My doctor said that GBS is treatable. Most moms in rollercoster.ie support group also strongly believe that early detection is the key factor to manage GBS. Some hospitals and caregivers never insist on having HVS and GBS test. Some even nonchalantly dismiss the need of doing swab during pregnancy! I'd say it's a disgrace for us women to be ignorant of our rights and NOT having ourselves tested for GBS during our pregnancy. I was ignorant once and I'm so lucky to have a very good doctor to take care of me. To all pregnant mothers out there, please be alarmed and have yourselves swabbed and tested for GBS before it's too late. As for me, I'm still in 'grey area' as the infection won't happen until I give birth to my girl later. I pray to God real hard that I'm going to give natural birth and hopefully the infection won't be transmitted to my little princess later.

Lets take a little break from this distressing update okay (-_-)...

About my baby's development (since yesterday was supposed to be my boring & regular pregnancy check-up), I'm happy to report that she's growing rather well and if she keeps on growing at this rate, I might be having a 3.3kg baby girl at my full term! She's estimated to be 2.4kg now and all her measurements are good. Saw her in the ultrasound scan yesterday and she looks healthy and strong (oh, I'm being biased, I know!). Her position is good and all in all, she if a fine growing baby girl in my womb :)

The only person who's not fine and unhealthy is actually ME (oh boy, here we go again!). Ugh. That sucks. To know the fact that your baby is growing healthy and YOU are the one who has the potential to make your child sick is totally uncool. To know that GBS is a type of blood disease and therefore will make my cordblood storage not viable is also frustrating.

I just hope that I can survive another two weeks before my next visit. I'll be 37 weeks in two weeks time and if the baby is still holding on inside me, the chance for me to risk my baby with GBS infection (in one way at least) is already getting lower. All I can do now is hope and pray.

Till then, hope the next update will be a positive and a cheerful one! Have a good weekend peeps ;)