Ellyse’s mum writes,
“In 2010 I gave birth to my first child, a beautiful baby girl Lilee. As a first time mum, I did all of my research on being pregnant and having a baby. In all the books I had read, I had never come across group B Strep. So when I gave birth to Lilee and she was diagnosed with newborn Meningitis and septicemia after contracting group B Strep from me, it traumatised me. Luckily, Lilee made a full recovery with only a low immune system. The experience made me fearful to have any more children, until after almost 7 years of support from the charity along with research and awareness of GBS I welcomed my pregnancy with my second daughter.
Throughout my pregnancy the charity comforted and listened to all my concerns. The midwives understood my knowledge of the infection and catered to my concerns. After an extremely difficult pregnancy due to other complications, on her due date 24/02/2017 my beautiful baby girl Ellyse was born vaginally. I received antibiotics prior to giving birth to prevent the risk of infection and after being observed for 24 hours after her birth it was confirmed Ellyse did NOT have the infection.
Me and my girls are so thankful to GBSS, over the years we have done our best to raise awareness of GBS, from doing talks in high schools, featuring in newspapers and magazines to encouraging celebrities to promote GBS AWARE. We have raised money for the charity in a variety of ways from colour runs, Family fun days to my daughter cutting off her hair. We hope our story can give comfort that with the support of the charity and raising awareness with donations, we are positive other parents can have a happy and healthy baby.”
Ellyse is the younger sister of Lilee: https://gbss.org.uk/stories/lilee/
