Peyton’s mum Sarah writes,
“During pregnancy my group B Strep swab came back positive. However, due to Gestational diabetes my baby was to be born by a planned Caesarean section.
Peyton Lyla was born at 38+5 weeks in August 2020. We experienced a lot of feeding issues which led to Peyton being quite poorly and losing 17% of her body weight. We then experienced blood in her stools for over a week before investigations began. Very soon we were diagnosed with severe food allergies and she was started on a prescription amino-acid long chain peptide hypoallergenic formula. We are so thankful for this discovery for it was during this admission it was discovered Peyton was septic and was positive for GBS.
The next thing we knew our two-week-old baby was rushed away to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to have a central line put in her chest for a strong course of antibiotics with ultimately an unknown outcome.
I remember my midwife in an antenatal appointment discussing GBS with me and I was more than happy to have the antibiotics. I remember lying in theatre before the operation reminding the surgeon and nurses that I was GBS positive.
For 4 weeks I sat by Peyton’s hospital crib alone, as this was during COVID19 Restrictions. She was being fed by nasogastric tube as she continued to fail to thrive and could not coordinate sucking a bottle.
Thankfully the course of antibiotic therapy was successful and soon we were allowed to finally take our baby home. Every day in hospital was battle between high and low temperatures in between consciousness and oxygen drops. We were extremely lucky Peyton did not get any sicker. People have said to me, “Well the good thing is she won’t remember it”, that is very true, and I am so thankful for that, but I myself will never forget the trauma of watching my first newborn baby undergo multiple spinal taps, cannula insertions, multiple daily injections, blood tests, ultrasounds and medical imaging. I will never forget her painful cries and the noticeable agony she suffered.
3 months on we are home. Peyton is nil by mouth and has a full-time nasogastric tube as she aspirates on all oral liquids no matter the thickness. We still have multiple appointments a week and travel all over the state. At this point she has been diagnosed with oral and pharyngeal dysphasia and we do not know if this was related to the GBS in any way.
Postpartum, I have had courses of antibiotics and I am still a carrier for GBS. I could blame myself for my daughter becoming gravely ill. But I do not believe in blame for situations such as these. Peyton is alive and we could not be more thankful for our medical system.
Thanks for taking the time to read my daughters story. We have an Instagram page @prayers_for_peyton_lyla”
