One potential hazard that Moms may face during labor and delivery is the use of IV antibiotics for Group B Strep (GBS) infections.
At around 35-37 weeks gestation, a pregnant woman is routinely given a swab test that determines if they are infected with Group B Strep. This bacterium is very common. Approximately one in every three women carries it in her vagina.
The Group B Strep bacterium, while no threat to the pregnant woman, has the potential to cause very serious health consequences for the newborn baby.
Most women who test positive for Group B Strep are able to go on and deliver perfectly normal, healthy babies with no complications. However, a few babies exposed to Group B Strep may develop pneumonia or meningitis either immediately after birth or up to a week later. Some babies may have long term vision or hearing loss from the exposure, though this is quite rare.
Like the dangerous, synthetic Vitamin K shot that is administered to all newborns for an extremely rare, bleeding into the brain disorder, the Standard of Care for all pregnant women testing positive for GBS is IV antibiotics during labor and delivery even though Group B Strep infections occur only in approximately 1 out of every 4444 babies born to GBS colonized women (.0225%).
In one review of babies with early-onset Group B Strep infections born in Southern California Kaiser Permanente Hospitals from 1988-1996, use of IV antibiotics during labor “did not change the clinical spectrum of disease or the onset of clinical signs of infection within 24 hours of birth for term infants with EOGBS infection.” (Pediatrics, Aug 2000; 106: 244-250).
Did you get that?
1 out of every 4444 babies still gets sick with GBS infections even if their mothers are treated with IV antibiotics during labor and delivery. IV antibiotics make absolutely no difference to the outcome of babies born to Group B Strep colonized Mothers and yet this miserable failure of a medical protocol is still considered Standard of Care for pregnant women who test GBS positive.
Incidentally, antibiotics for a common related condition known as strep throat are not usually necessary either. Doctors just prescribe drugs for this condition because it is easy and patients expect it according to the Journal Canadian Family Physician (1).
Strep throat remedies using natural antibiotics such as cayenne pepper, manuka honey, garlic, and turmeric are fast and effective without the side effects.
Beware of doctors who tell you that the “medical research” indicates that this treatment does work. Research is a very different thing from what happens in practice. Research may indicate that a treatment works, but in practice, it may not work at all or may cause even more serious consequences than what the treatment is trying to prevent in the first place!
For example, children whose Mothers undergo IV antibiotics during labor and delivery appear to be highly predisposed for potentially lifelong complications, including severe allergies, asthma, ADHD, and autism just to name a few.
I realize this is anecdotal observation, but most children of the women I know who received IV antibiotics during labor and delivery have some sort of chronic health issue that the parents are continuing to struggle with years after the birth.
Another unintended yet extremely dangerous consequence of IV antibiotics during labor and delivery is the increased occurrence of antibiotic-resistant, “superbug” infections like MRSA.
In addition, IV antibiotics have increased the occurrence of infections such as sepsis and E. Coli. The sobering truth is that the risks of developing a superbug from IV antibiotics are much greater than the chance of saving your baby from Group B Strep infection.
It is clear that avoiding IV antibiotics during labor and delivery needs to be a priority for every pregnant woman.
It is imperative that this message gets out to Mothers-to-be that antibiotics don’t work to prevent a Group B Strep infection and this treatment has a high potential to predispose your child to the development of auto-immune disease later in childhood. Why hasn’t this treatment already been abandoned for lack of efficacy?
While it is always a difficult task to explain pure stupidity especially when such behavior comes from highly educated people trained to deliver care in a supposedly objective manner, my guess is that the boost to the bottom line in requiring IV antibiotics for every GBS positive pregnant woman (one out of every three!) is so powerful and such a dependable source of revenue for hospitals that only pure outrage and refusal of this treatment from an increasing number of pregnant women will stop the practice.
What is the best approach to avoid this dangerous treatment in the meantime while OBs continue to falsely trumpet it as somehow helpful to the birth outcome? In my case, I simply refused the Group B Strep test outright.
Even if you’ve had a negative GBS test already (for example, I tested negative with my first pregnancy), you can still test positive with later pregnancies, so when I became aware of the uselessness of this treatment, I no longer submitted to the test at all. With no positive test hanging over your head, medical personnel has a much weaker case for insisting upon IV antibiotics in the first place.
In my opinion, it is also best to seek an out of the hospital birthing environment where the birth process is not viewed and treated as a medical event. Medical personnel attending to a laboring Mom at a freestanding birth center or home birth are much less likely to favor the utilization of this type of treatment than the same personnel in a hospital setting.
If you choose to refuse the test as I did, make sure to consume a quality probiotic throughout pregnancy and especially during the final weeks of gestation which will promote the growth of beneficial bodily bacteria and will give any GBS bacteria (if you even have any) very little opportunity to flourish and harm your baby during the delivery process.
An additional habit to develop while pregnant is to utilize the benefits of fresh vegetable juicing as this practice has a wonderful, alkalizing effect on the body chemistry, discouraging the growth of any pathogens such as GBS and promoting the growth of healthy, beneficial, body flora. Ideally, fresh vegetable juice should be consumed on an empty stomach to have the most pronounced, alkalizing effect (2 hours after eating and do not eat anything for about 20 minutes after drinking the juice).
If you are reading this and you have recently given birth to a baby and you received IV antibiotics during delivery, it is IMPERATIVE even if you are breastfeeding that you get your baby on a Bifidus supplement immediately (there are brands made especially for infants) and continue for a month or two so that your baby’s gut can be recolonized with beneficial bacteria.
It is also wise for the Mother to start taking a therapeutic strength probiotic right away as her own beneficial bacteria will have been decimated by the IV antibiotics and her breastmilk will most likely not contain the number of good bacteria that it should as a result.
I am also trying to get pregnant for the 2nd time and am a bit nervous about possibly facing the same sickness that i did last time. I'd love any advice you may have on morning sickness and alternatives to getting some healthy food down even when you feel as though you'll never eat another vegetable again.
Hi Kimberle, there are a number of causes of morning sickness. A toxic gut is one of them, so doing some fresh veggie juicing 30 minutes before meals at this time would be helpful to detox your system prior to conception (don't do this after you get pregnant). Raw milk really helped me keep the nausea at bay as I was low in B6 (one of cause of morning sickness) and sipping raw milk all day long (raw milk is very high in B6 – pasteurized milk has little to no B6) really helped me stay nausea free.
I read your your article about how green juice can devastate your health?! How come you now say it is healthy? So what about those oxalates and eating greens in moderation or lightly cooked?
Any recommendations of where to buy bifidus supplement for infants? Any recommended brands?
This is my fifth pregnancy (with a midwife each time). I have never tested positive for GBS until now. However, I was only 15 weeks when it showed up in my urine. I opted out of antibiotics and asked God to give me the right protocol to cure the GBS naturally. I tested my urine again 2 weeks later and there was no sign of GBS!!! Praise the Lord!! Sarah, could you please tell me what veggies would be best to juice so, that I can keep the GBS away? Thanks, Rita
Hi Rita, my favorite is a few organic carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 cucumber, 1 beet. Add an organic apple if you like.
Is that a raw beet or cooked?
I know this is old.But what remedy did you use to get rid of the gbs uti? Or did it go away on its own?
I tested positive for GBS when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was pretty shocked that I actually tested positive for it, and then went on to have three rounds of antibiotics during labor. Well, as you can guess, at around 6 weeks, I noticed my daughter had very bad reactions to several different kinds of food I was eating via breastfeeding. I cut out milk, eggs, soy and wheat from my diet, and she was fine. She’s now 15 months old, and doing a lot better, and very slowly starting on new foods. My older son (I didn’t have antibiotics with him) also has food allergies, so I know that the GBS treatment isn’t the entire reason for her food allergy issues (probably more like leaky gut on my part- but I’ve yet to be seen by someone to confirm/diagnose that particular issue). I so wish I would’ve had info like this a year and a half ago. It would’ve saved us so much trouble…but then again a lot of these issues have prompted us to eat better and gain knowledge we may not have come across otherwise. I knew about avoiding antibiotics, but didn’t have the info to refuse the treatment. (I would have too! But I probably also would have been looking for a new OB ’cause she didn’t like it when I went against any of her recommendations.) If we ever have another child, I will know better what to do (and what not to do!)
I tested positive for GBS with my 4th – and hadn’t done the research until after the fact to realize I didn’t need the IV antibiotics. My water broke with her at 8:30 pm, we were to the hospital and in a room by about 10 pm and she was born at 9 the next morning. They also gave me “a 1/2 dose” of pitocin to “push me over the edge”. Ohh how I wish I had known then what I know now. Anyway – my daughter is now 15 months and is having digestive issues, some inflammation in that area, and a lipoma at her breastbone. I am still breastfeeding her, but an unsure of what to do next. We are just starting to give her a supplement called Total Inflam for the inflammation, but I am lost as to what to do next. Any advice?
Sarah – Thanks for such a great blog, I am trying to turn our health around. My son is 8 months old and I didn’t know about any of the things I know now. I am wondering if I can give him biokult yet? He has reflux but is outgrowing it, I have had him on probiotics from everidis since around 2 months old, but I don’t think it has bifidus in it. Thanks so much for your wonderful blog! I am looking forward to hearing from you.
I have read all the comments and I am so glad its worked for many of you. I have not changed my point of view: not taking antibiotics if you are strep B positive is irresponsible and naive.
I tested positive for Strep B since my first pregnancy. My first delivery was with the antibiotics and I had no complications. In my second delivery at a very naturalistic hospital the Dr suggested not to use any. His arguments were almost all the same as the ones in your article. The result: my son was born strep b positive and was immediately transferred to an ICU, i also got a general infection possibly caused by the same thing. both of us were in different hospitals for about two weeks with ups and downs in our infection journeys. As you can imagine, i remember those days as very difficult times, full of tears and very little hope about my son’s recovery. At the ICU had was given much antibiotics and for so long that saving the doze at birth made no difference at all. In fact it was a very big mistake. I still remember the smell of antibiotics all over his little clothes even for weeks after. Myself, I also had so much antibiotics that felt sick even for weeks after and was also an emotional wreck. The fact that he was transferred to a different hospital for ICU meant that I couldnt even breastfeed him as I would have liked. So, for my third child and for the fourth one I am about to have in three weeks I will happily take any antibiotics the doctors give me rather than see my baby taken away from me without even a clear idea if he/she will survive the infection.
I didn’t have this. But my son had the abtibiotic eye drops after he was born. Does this mean his gut flora is out of balance? Would he benefit from that supplemental bifidis? He also had 3 vax in his 4 month life. What can I do to fix the damage I’ve caused aside from the gaps diet. I am stating that tomorrow. I fear it’s too late to stop vaccinating since I’ve already weakened his immune system so much!
Hannah
They gave this to my son, and now at 9 he has trouble with pooping. He holds off on it because it is painful and difficult to pass. Ideas?