GBS TEST

The Group B Strep Test is an test that is generally done about 35 to 37 weeks to find out if you are a carrier at the time of the test of the Group B Strep bacteria.

1) The problem with this test according to the materials that I have been reading is that one day the bacteria may be there, one day the bacteria may not be there.

The treatment for it if you are positive is antibiotic treatment (generally penincillin). If you are familiar with antibiotics you may or may not know that if you the strain of bacteria that you have is resistant to this or any other antibiotic. There are allergic reactions associated with antibiotics.

2) The other problem is that despite of the fact that you may receive antibiotic treatment while in labor, if you are not taking the right antibiotic for the bacteria that you have, the antibiotic treatment does not work.

The are thing that increase the chance of your baby getting infected such as cervical exam, rupture of the membranes, etc.

You can opt to say, I don't want the antibiotic treatment, but now they want to take the baby away for testing, for cultures...

Can you opt to say, I don't want my baby taken for testing now? What are the repercussions?

I feel that at my stage of pregnancy, over 35 weeks, with a baby that most likely weighing over 5 lbs, and doing alternative treatments for to ensure that the bacteria is not there when I and the baby are ready for birth that my son will be one of the thousands of babies that is not infected with this bacteria.

However the way the medical model is arranged, I will be treated like an infected person. If I did not do the test, it would have been the same way. I would still be treated as an infected person.

Until later

the 9 week visit

I hadn't spoken much about the baby, because they usually say to wait until the end of the 1st trimester....Well, at the end of 12 weeks, it will be pretty much the end of the 1st Trimester...

In what I think might have been the 4th week of my pregnancy, I began to suspect that I was pregnant, I did the home pregnancy test, and it was positive. Than at about 5 weeks, I decided to just go ahead to the regular OB/GYN, after all, the doctor did say that he was doing a VBAC.

Well, I had a blood test, which indicated that I was 5 weeks pregnant, and they told me to return in 2 weeks, I think I returned in about 3 weeks for the ultrasound. The ultrasound indicated that I was 9 weeks and 2 days pregnant....from what I could see, it looked like the shape of a head and body, wiggling around in my uterus. It was perfectly coming together...The doctor said you "have" to come back from some test during the 11 to 13 weeks of pregnancy, and since you had a c-section, you are automatically scheduled for a c-section. He stated, "I don't know any other physicians at St. Barnabas Medical Center who do VBAC, because they are extremely dangerous."

As you can see, I had to run from there as far as possible...

I have elected not to do that chromosonal testing from 11 to 13 weeks. First of all, if it indicates that the child has a certain percentage of having any type of problem, I'm not going to elect an abortion, and science has not developed anything special to prevent or change the situation. Why poke myself unecessarily....I thought...All these pregnancy tests are optional folks, you don't HAVE to do anything.

Anyway, I decided to go see a CNM and an OB, and right now, I'm sticking the CNM...I think I'll have a better learning experience, and I should be able to GESTATE IN PEACE....