In Canada, one of the tests offered to women prenatally by doctors and registered midwives is a swab for Group B Strep (GBS). If the swab is positive, the woman will be offered antibiotics during her labour.
When it comes to GBS during pregnancy, you have choices in:
- whether or not to test for it prenatally
- whether or not to use antibiotics during birth
Here are some resources to explore while making your decision on these topics:
It’s worth noting that while antibiotics are commonly recommended during labour for women diagnosed as having GBS, Cochrane found that:
“giving antibiotics is not supported by conclusive evidence. The review identified four trials involving 852 GBS positive women. Three trials, which were more than 20 years old, compared ampicillin or penicillin to no treatment and found no clear differences in newborn deaths although the occurrence of early GBS infection in the newborn was reduced with antibiotics.
There are pros and cons to testing vs not-testing, and it is important to think about the risk of antibiotic use in pregnancy, as well.
Things to consider are:
- Would you use antibiotics prophylactically if you knew you were GBS+ve?
- Would you change anything during pregnancy if you knew you were GBS+ve?
- Would you overall do anything different based on the results of the test?
Review the above links to get more info and make your decision!