Rhianna just commented on the gbs and alternative remedies post:

Hi there!

I was just reading your blog. You are correct in saying there is so little out there about the Dangers of GBS… my son was born just 2 weeks before your Wren, he got pneumonia caused my GBS also. Luckily, we were in the hospital for his birth and the nurse happened to hear him making the noises while breathing. He was my 2nd baby and my 1st was a grunter, so I thought it was similar, but you are right, there is a certain noise that a child in respiratory distress makes and it’s hard to just know it isn’t normal when you hear it.

The nurse took him and got him checked out. They started antibiotics right away, while running tests, later to find out it was GBS. My labor had been only 2.5 hours start to finish, so I hadn’t gotten the antibiotics. He was though born at 37w2d, so his risk should have been slightly lower… he was a healthy 8lb baby and healthy in every way, other than the sudden early-onset of GBS.

Anyways, all this to say, I’m due in the next 4 weeks to have another baby. I’ve done lots of natural treatments to prevent the GBS, just in case, but I will also get the iv during labor… it’s a scary thing, but the hospital will be monitoring my baby immediately after birth to be sure there are no signs of it happening again.

I’m so sorry for your loss. I appreciate the effort you are putting into getting the word out there about the dangers of GBS. It is a very scary thing that so many people don’t understand how important it is to be tested and to be treated. If you
are interested, you are welcome to email me and see how my 2nd birth goes and whether this baby has any GBS complications… I know you are expecting another baby (or I gathered that from reading your most recent post) so I know you’ll be hightailing even more research… Thanks again.

Hey Rhianna,

Wow, our stories are so similar… just two weeks before, within 4 days gestationally, no IV, and pneumonia due to GBS. Thank you very much for the note.. I only wish we hadn’t had a home birth, maybe our story could have turned out like yours.

We’re pretty worried about GBS again now with this pregnancy, but are confident that if we just get the antibiotic IV as soon as Tweeny goes into labor or her water breaks, and if we carefully monitor the baby in a hospital afterwards, we should be fine.

We are also considering perhaps even doing a planned c-section at 39 weeks (if we get there!) to REALLY minimize any chances of GBS entering the uterus even before labor (possibly resulting in stillbirth) or infecting this baby during labor. You might want to talk to your doctors about this possibility too.. it really is the overall safest way to get the baby out! 🙂

As I’m sure you already saw in the post, alternative remedies for GBS really don’t do anything. They shouldn’t hurt really(except for douching! Never douche!), except in that they provide a dangerous false sense of security. The ONLY thing that matters is getting that IV as soon as you can and monitoring your baby after birth. Since you already had a prior baby with infectious GBS disease like us, you don’t need to get tested this time around… for this and all future pregnancies you just get the IV.

I would love to hear how it goes this time around. I’m confident everything will go fine though! Good luck!!

Thanks,
josh!