Stacey writes,
“I had a little girl in June 2019. She was born 3 weeks early as she had stopped growing. When she was born, she was struggling to breathe and eventually collapsed her own lung as she was trying to breathe so hard. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis as well. Her little body was going through so much she couldn’t fight much on her own so was eventually ventilated and transferred to a more specialised baby unit.
As she was started on antibiotics immediately no bacteria showed in her cultures, but I was told 5 days after giving birth that I had group B Strep. I am a biomedical scientist, so I am very much aware what this means to unborn babies. I never thought this would happen as I already have a little boy who is now 4 and never had any issues at birth.
I am still currently waiting for the hospital to admit that this was what made my little girl so poorly. Thankfully she has made a full recovery. She had 3 weeks on a ventilator while her body recovered and had to have medication for her liver for a few weeks after as she was still very jaundiced. She is now 8 months old and doing amazing. I know not everyone is that lucky and I honestly cannot believe this is not routinely screened for. I know my workplace screen for it in pregnant ladies at a certain stage of pregnancy, but I don’t know if this is the same for all trusts around me.”
