GBS Positive Ladies?

[Kaitlyn811]

I went to my midwife today, and she's informed me that my results are positive. I'm really bummed out. I have a friend who is very much into natural remedies (amongst other things, you know, attachment parenting, natural birth, etc) and she's giving me some pointers and suggested maybe I get retested. 

Any other ladies positive? Are you receiving the antibiotics they "recommend" during labor? Or are you forgoing them and accepting the risks? 

[futuremamaheather]

I just got my positive results too, and am pretty bummed as well :(

I had a nice talk with my midwife about what that means for me - basically that she'll be less willing to have my water broken for a looooooooong time before baby comes, and that she'll be even more cautious if a fever develops. She suggested several things to me to do between now and birth (daily: 1000mg Vit C, 2000mg Vit D, echinacea, and a good probiotic supplement) and we will do the Hibiclens protocol instead of IV antibiotics. We're having a homebirth, and I don't think they do Hibiclens rinses in the hospital? The protocol is to do a vaginal rinse once every six hours during labor.

[cedarwoman]

I'm GBS+ too :( I'm going to be retested at 38.5 weeks if baby's still staying put... I'm not sure what will be recommended if test negative at that point. 

I have decided to accept the antibiotics in the meantime. Since I'm allergic to several of them I am getting a less-frequently used one, I figure that's not such a bad thing. I am able to have the IV at home and it takes about 20 minutes to run through... the midwives are going to do their best to ensure I only receive one dose, and I'm starting now on all natural preventative measures that I can do to prevent yeast overgrowth after the antibiotic. Typically I don't take them, and I've never had an antibiotic-related yeast overgrowth (nor have I had trouble this pregnancy) so I hope my body chemistry continues to work in my favor. However, all that said, I am still not 100% sure what to do. My midwives don't do the hibiclens rinse but have said that if it's something I want to do and can do myself, they aren't going to fuss about it.

I had a hard time deciding with this one, but lately I've been experiencing some UTI symptoms and that sort of solidified things... I think if I was totally asymptomatic it would still be up in the air, and as I said if I test negative at 38.5 weeks... I might change my mind yet. The midwives are open to my changing my mind in labour as well. I think if I had to have the antibiotics in hospital I might refuse, just because the hospital here has some antibiotic-resistant infections going around and I would really worry about that since they'd probably just do the IV in the ER (it's a small-ish hospital) and send me back home. With (hopefully) just my own germs to contend with, I am feeling it's less of a risk at home. 

Out of all the tests I've had (or refused) this one was one of the scarier ones for me. I was really, really upset when I found out (and mad because it was a vag-rectal test and I felt like there wasn't much I could do to make sure my rectum was clean, I mean, come on). 

[softlysinging]

I took the antibiotics, more to appease the hospital than because I really believed I was at high risk.  I had a full term baby, my membranes didn't rupture until 8 minutes before he was born, no fever or anything.  But they get all twitchy at the hospital if you don't do it and want to observe the baby longer, which I didn't want.

I ended up not getting the 4 hours (soooo close.  3.5 hours.  and 8 minutes of ROM!) and they still wanted to do a blood culture on the baby, which I allowed and it came back fine.

[element2012]

I found out I am GBS+ at 38 weeks.  My MW gave me a protocol to clear it up, and we'll test again next week.  I don't *think* baby will come before then.  If I am still GBS+ after that, my MW will use IV antibiotics, didn't offer any other choice.  I am really surprised and upset that I am GBS+, I *never* have candida issues so I really thought everything down there was in tip top shape.  I really hope the hibiclens works.  Since this thread is older, did anyone have any luck clearing it up?

[pixelmixel]

I was GBS+ with my last LO and am GBS+ again with this one. It was detected early in pregnancy - in a urine culture. If it's in your urine as it was in mine, that means that you have a high count for the bacteria. There's nothing you can do about it - really, it's natural. They say you've got a 30% chance at any point in time of being GBS+. I accepted the antibiotics last time (hospital birth, epidural, etc. - despite all my other crunchy aspects!) :-)  Everything went fine. I will accept antibiotics again and get there early so as to avoid the baby being kept longer or any additional tests being done.