For What to Expect’s “What I Wish I’d Known” series, moms and dads share the wisdom they’ve gained since first becoming parents.
I know many women say that giving birth was nothing like they expected it to be — but for me, giving birth was really nothing like I expected it to be. In the moments before I started pushing, alarm bells rang on the monitors all over the room.
One doctor mentioned I had a fever, and another said my baby’s heart rate was increasing. There was a sense of urgency in the room, but no one was talking directly to me — only to each other.
After my daughter was born, my doctor put her on my chest, and I immediately screamed, “She’s not breathing!”
They grabbed her, and what felt like 10 million people rushed into the delivery room. They resuscitated her on the bed next to me, and then one doctor did something I’m forever grateful for: He suspected she was infected with group B strep (GBS) and administered antibiotics.
My group B strep went undetected during pregnancy
Group B Streptococcus, also referred to as group B strep or GBS, is a type of bacteria found in about 1 in 4 women. It can live in the vagina and gastrointestinal tract as part of the body’s natural flora. In most cases, it does not cause any symptoms or harm to the woman, says Shannon Smith, M.D., OB/GYN and What to Expect Medical Review Board member.
Moms who have it and are not treated for it may pass the bacteria to their babies during vaginal delivery. In babies, this bacteria can cause dangerous infections, including pneumonia or meningitis.
To screen for GBS, your OB/GYN will administer a test around week 36 or 37 of pregnancy, which involves a swab of the vagina and rectum. Assuming the test was performed correctly, if the result is negative, there's nothing else to do, says Dr. Smith. If positive, doctors recommend administering antibiotics via an IV during labor.
When I did get the GBS swab at 37 weeks pregnant, my test came back negative. We now know this to have been a false result.
False negatives aren’t very common, but they do happen. They can be a result of testing before 36 weeks of pregnancy, not swabbing both the vagina and rectum, something happening during transit to the lab, or having recently taken antibiotics, according to Group B Strep International.
My particular test was only a swab of the vagina, which could have impacted the results.
“Years ago, some doctors only swabbed the vagina, but now we know it’s important to check both the vagina and the rectum,” explains Aimee Eyvazzadeh, M.D., M.P.H., an OB/GYN, fertility specialist in San Ramon, California, and member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board. “Swabbing both spots gives a better chance of finding the bacteria if it’s there, so this is now the standard way the test is done.”
My incorrect GBS result put my daughter’s health at risk
At 34 weeks pregnant, my blood pressure was getting a little high, and while I didn't have preeclampsia, my doctors recommended going ahead with an early induction at 38 weeks out of an abundance of caution.
I labored for 36 hours total, but after about 26 hours, my doctor broke my water. When my daughter was born and they handed her to me, she was not breathing. I flagged this to the doctors, who resuscitated her and administered antibiotics. That decision may have saved her life.
To make sure she got the very best possible care, the neonatal team rushed her to the nearby Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where she would be formally tested for GBS. My husband went with her, leaving me alone, traumatized, and terrified. I wondered if my daughter would make it. I wanted to go with her, but my doctor said I had to stay in recovery at least one night.
The following morning, my doctor confirmed that my daughter did, in fact, have an infection related to GBS. It was immediately clear that my screening results were wrong. Because I wasn’t administered the necessary antibiotics during labor, my baby was on a ventilator, was being cooled to hopefully prevent brain damage from her lack of oxygen at birth, and was being treated with antibiotics.
The chance of death for babies infected with GBS is around 4 to 6%, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some babies develop deafness or disabilities because of the disease. The hope was that the doctor’s decision to treat her with antibiotics immediately meant that she would be healthy.
“Babies with a GBS infection will be in the NICU with supportive care, as well as antibiotics,” says Gina Posner, M.D., a pediatrician at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, and a member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board. “Usually, they will use ampicillin [an antibiotic] for 10 to 15 days, depending on where the GBS is found.”
Soon, my own health started to decline
When I tried to stand up after giving birth, I started to feel an excruciating pain in my legs. It shot down from the right side of my butt, and I couldn’t walk.
Even though I was in pain, my team couldn't figure out what was going on and discharged me. After a few hours at home with my mom and sister, I spiked a fever, and I was rushed back to the hospital in an ambulance. My husband rushed from the NICU, where he was visiting our daughter, to be with me at the hospital. My doctor thought it could be an infection, so I had an MRI.
The pain was excruciating — the worst I’d ever felt, and way worse than childbirth. The MRI was clear, but I knew I wasn’t okay. My medical team kept me in the hospital for two weeks to try to figure out what was wrong, and for the first five days of that time, I screamed and cried so much that I temporarily paralyzed my vocal cords and couldn't talk. I couldn't move and I didn't have a voice. I felt absolutely helpless.
My husband came to visit me occasionally, but mostly my mom and my sister stayed with me so he could stay with our daughter. I’d try to pump before his visits, and then he’d take the breastmilk to our daughter in the NICU. But the pain in my legs was almost unbearable; it felt like I was paralyzed. My OB/GYN would only give me Tylenol to help — he was concerned I’d get addicted to anything stronger.
A few of my nurses pulled me aside and suggested I get a second opinion from a different doctor. I thought about what they said for days and weeks to come.
My daughter made a miraculous recovery — but my health was still a mystery
After two weeks, my daughter was healthy enough to come home. But doctors still had no idea what was wrong with me. My OB/GYN thought it was just sciatica and suggested I leave the hospital and be with my baby. So I was discharged on the same day that my baby was able to come home from the children's hospital. My husband picked me up from my room, and we headed off to get her. I was so happy she had a clean bill of health, but terrified to go home and take care of her when I still wasn’t okay.
My husband wheeled me out of the hospital and to our car, but what those nurses had told me a few days before was still lingering in my mind. I wanted to get a second opinion.
As soon as I got home, I made a few calls to other doctors' offices. Once I found someone I was comfortable with, I set up an appointment for the next day. The doctor reviewed my symptoms with me and insisted I go back for additional tests, but at a different hospital.
Two MRIs later, it was determined that I also had a GBS infection, and it had spread into my right sacroiliac (SI) joint. I needed emergency open hip surgery and a PICC line to my heart with antibiotics.
Doctors thought these antibiotics would cure me of everything, but they didn't.
When I had another MRI at four weeks postpartum, they told me that now my left hip was infected with GBS. I was rushed into emergency open hip surgery because my doctors were worried about permanent hip damage.
GBS doesn’t typically impact mom, but in my case it did
Most adults who test positive for GBS don't become infected with it or have symptoms. This is why it wasn’t something the hospital doctors thought to test for. But in some extreme cases, it can get into the bloodstream and travel to different parts of the body, including joints and bones, says Dr. Eyvazzadeh.
"Labor and delivery cause trauma to the cervix, vagina, uterus, and perineum," explains Dr. Smith. And this can make it easy for bacteria to get into those entry points. "In most women, the immune system contains them with no issue. However, in the postpartum period, if bacteria gets into the blood, it can lead to endometritis, wound infection, sepsis, or septic pelvic thrombophlebitis, particularly if pathogens like group B Streptococcus or E. coli are involved."
These infections can damage the joint and, if not treated quickly, might require surgery to clean out the infection, says Dr. Eyvazzadeh. “In the worst cases, if the infection causes severe damage or spreads quickly, emergency surgery, like opening the hip joint, might be needed." My infection had in fact spread to my hip joint and surgery was inevitable.
I woke up from surgery, and for the first time since giving birth a month beforehand, the pain was improving. I stayed in the hospital for a few days but was ultimately able to finish recovering at home.
I felt better after that last surgery, but it took four months for me to be able to walk again and a year before I could walk without a limp. There was so much trauma in my body, and recovery took a long time. I took daily medicine and went through physical therapy. I had a wheelchair, then a walker, then a cane.
GBS is very common and preventable for babies
In my many follow-up appointments, providers shared that what happened to me is incredibly rare. What happened to my daughter, however, is common. When moms with GBS aren’t treated with antibiotics during delivery, it’s incredibly dangerous for the baby, and many don't make it.
I’ve wondered why all moms aren’t given antibiotics for GBS just in case they’ve been misdiagnosed. If GBS goes untreated during labor, 1 in 200 babies would be affected, says Dr. Eyvazzadeh. When treated, the risk is 1 in 2,000. Antibiotics aren't given to every pregnant mom regardless of whether they have GBS or not because overusing antibiotics when they aren't needed can create more harm than good – things like antibiotic resistance and poor gut microbiome, for example, she adds.
I feel like my family escaped with the best-case scenario last time — I am now healthy, and so is my daughter. I feel lucky, but I also learned a valuable lesson about trusting my gut.
I’m now a little over 7 months pregnant with my second baby. This time around, I carefully chose a new doctor, I'm electing to have a C-section, and I will be getting antibiotics since I have a history of GBS (which is the standard recommendation).
My family was robbed of time during those harrowing months after my daughter was born. What’s most frustrating is that it was so preventable. I wish I had known the consequences of an improper screening. I wish the moms who do get positive results would know that antibiotics could prevent their baby from facing devastating outcomes. I hope other moms hear my story and feel a little more prepared.
It took me a long time to get here, and I know the thought of repeating my past delivery experience will continue to scare me — but I’m doing everything within my control to advocate for myself and my baby.
Yes 
No 
