group B strep culture

[Christa]

Now to gross you all out - I just finished writing an article on GBS & found in looking at all the medical journals & stuff written for those who are doing the actual GB strep cultures, that the only currently accepted way to culture group B strep is to use a broth of sheep's blood.

Apparently they take the swabs from pg women & test what they get off the swabs in some kind of selctive broth media that MUST include sheep blood. Yuck! I don't know how this relates to testing for most of us (fortunately I am beyond this as we are done having children).

It is generally useful to know if you are "colonized" with GBS even if you are not going to take the antibiotics, but I would now be pretty uncomfortable having this test done.

[Erin Pavlina]

that's good to know. Thanks for sharing that info.

I'm imagining that most tests involve some sort of animal ingredients somewhere along the way.

I'm GBS positive, but I'm only getting antibiotics if I have a fever during labor, premature rupture of membranes for 18 hours or more, or premature birth before 37 weeks, as recommended by the CDC. My doc is cool with my decision.

For anyone who decides not to take the test, these three risk factors should suffice in deciding whether to get antibiotics during labor or not.

[Christa]

I totally agree with your choice, as that is what I decided when I was pg with Tessa, but just so you know, the CDC updated their guidelines in the last year & are now recommending that all women who test + for GBS get antibiotics during labor, not just those with the 3 risk factors mentioned.

They felt that treating all + women was more effective than using a risk based approach.

[Erin Pavlina]

They would.