Streptococcus infection (GBS):
It is a type of bacterial infection that can be found in the vagina or rectum of a pregnant woman, and a mother can pass it on to her baby during childbirth. This causes serious problems, so the doctor does the test as a routine part of prenatal care. Streptococcus B is not a sexually transmitted disease. The bacteria usually live in the intestines, vagina, or rectum.
Symptoms:
- Fever during labor.
- Urinary tract infection during pregnancy.
Signs and symptoms that occur to the baby within hours of birth:
- Sepsis.
- Pneumonia.
- Meningitis.
- Unstable heartbeat.
- The onset of meningitis (symptoms most common) can also be delayed within a week or a few months after birth.
Diagnosis:
- The test is done by making a swab from both the vagina and rectum, and taking the sample to the laboratory, and the test results usually appear within 24 to 48 hours.
If the test results are positive and not high risk, the chance of having a child with it is:
- 1 in 200 if antibiotics are not given.
- 1 in 4,000 if antibiotics are given
Treatment:
In this case, treatment is done with intravenous antibiotics to protect the baby from infection during childbirth. As taking antibiotics greatly reduces the child's chances of early infection. Some cases in which the mother is treated with antibiotics without doing a test, and making sure of the presence of bacteria:
- If the mother had a previous child who contracted a streptococcal infection during childbirth.
- Presence of bacteria in the urine at any time during pregnancy.
- There is no clear result for the presence of bacteria at the time of birth, and the mother has a high temperature.
- There is no clear result of the presence of bacteria at the date of birth before 37 weeks.
- There is no clear result for the presence of bacteria and the passage of 18 hours since the beginning of the birth fluid (amniotic fluid).
- There is no clear result for the presence of bacteria, and the mother had a history of streptococcal infection in a previous pregnancy.
Protection:
All pregnant women should be routinely tested for vaginal bacteria between the 36th and 37th week of pregnancy, and there is currently no vaccine to help pregnant women protect their newborns from GBS.