Group B Strep, Rhogam and UC

[Darisey]

Hello all! How do you deal with Group B Strep during pregnancy/childbirth? Do you test for it or just assume by symptoms/past experience?
How do you treat it? When do you start treatment?

What about the Rhogam shot for RH negative blood? What kind of alternative options are there for that and what do I need to know about it?

Thanks so much in advance for any advice!! :)

[abc123xyz]

I have never tested for GBS because it's so arbitrary. The stats on it are that it's unlikely in a homebirth with little or no vaginally disruption, that you are at real risk. I just weighed the risks against the benefits and made a decision. Everyone must do so! I did, however, take precaution a couple weeks prior to birth by taking Vit. C, liquid silver, grapefruit seed extract, echinacea, and garlic. Things that are natural antibiotics and kill bacterias.

As for the rhogam, there is really nothing alternative for this. You either need it and decide to take it or not, or you don't need it. I always have it on hand. My back up Dr. prescribes it to me during pregnancy and we just keep it if we need it. We've never needed it but I always test baby cord blood for the blood type so I know and even if we may have needed it based on that, I haven't decided if I would take it yet or not. I just gauge the birth and decide from there. You have 72 hours to decide and can walk into any ER and tell them you need it and they HAVE to give it to you. It's life or death type protocol and I haven't heard of anyone being denied. Given a hard time, yes, but not denied! And you can just say that baby came before you could make it to the hospital and you were checked over by someone so they don't go all crazy calling CPS or anything.

Both of those situations are strictly based on personal conviction, though! You have to decide how you feel about it and make those decisions on what's best for you and your family. So often, women just submit to the medical authority without giving these things much thought. I am all about investigating your choices and options!

Good luck!
 

[Anna Bella]

Do you know your baby's father's blood type? If not, get it checked because if he is also negative, then you don't have to worry about it.

As for GBS, some people say you can get rid of it by taking probiotics/eating fermented food like yogurt, miso etc in the last months of pregnancy & I'm going to try that but I don't know what evidence there is for it. From what I've read, it seems there's little evidence for the standard medical treatment of anti-biotics in labour either ... the Cochrane group website is a good place to search if you're interested in actual evidence:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19588432

I think it's important just to be aware of the signs of infection so you can seek help in the unlikely event your baby was to become unwell.