Just had my weekly antenatal check-up yesterday and also had my Group B Streptococcus Screening Test in which the result will be next week. Got a weight of 75.10 kilograms while urine and BP normal.
From my first pregnancy, I remember that I didn't have this GBS Screening so the test was not familiar to me so to know more about it, here's what I've read from Babycenter.
I have read that all pregnant women are recommended to be routinely screened for GBS at 35 to 37 weeks.
What are the consequences of early-onset GBS disease?
Early-onset GBS disease can cause sepsis (an infection in the blood), pneumonia, and, less frequently, meningitis. Some of these babies, particularly those with meningitis, will have long-term health problems such as hearing or vision loss, cerebral palsy, or developmental disabilities, and about 5 percent won't survive.
Preterm babies have a lower survival rate than full-term babies, and those who survive are at higher risk for long-term problems from the disease.
What is the test like?
Your practitioner swabs the lower end of your vagina and your rectum (this isn't painful) and sends the swabs to a lab to be grown in a culture that will identify whether GBS bacteria is present. Your results should be available in two to three days, and your practitioner will give them to you at your next prenatal appointment. If she doesn't tell you, be sure to ask.
You may have heard about GBS tests that can be done during labor and delivery in some hospitals, with results available within an hour or so. But the rapid tests are not as sensitive as those that allow time for the GBS to incubate. So at the present time, the CDC, ACOG, and AAP all still recommend screening at 35 to 37 weeks.
What will happen if I test positive?
A positive result means only that you carry the bacteria – not that you or your baby will definitely become ill, even if you don't receive proper treatment.
Getting antibiotics during labor does reduce those odds by a huge factor: For example, if you're a GBS carrier with no other risk factors (you're 37 weeks or more, don't have a fever, and your membranes haven't been ruptured long), your baby's odds of getting infected are about 1 in 200 without treatment and about 1 in 4,000 if you do get treated.
Treatment also reduces your own chances of developing a GBS infection (such as a uterine infection) during labor or postpartum, as can sometimes happen.
If you're GBS-positive, you'll begin getting antibiotics as soon as your labor starts or your water breaks, whichever comes first. (The only case in which you wouldn't need treatment for GBS is if you have a cesarean section before your water breaks or you go into labor,regardless of how far along you are.)
Ideally, you'll want to get started on the antibiotics at least four hours before you give birth, but if your labor is very rapid you may not have that much time. Take comfort that getting started even a couple of hours before delivery helps reduce the risk to your baby. And try not to worry, because the chance that your baby will get sick – especially if he's full-term, you don't have a fever, and your membranes aren't ruptured for long – is small.
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