As part of July’s Group B Strep Awareness Month and meeting constituents who have been affected, the Halesowen & Rowley Regis MP has called for more to be done to improve awareness of group B Strep.
James Morris MP backed calls from UK charity Group B Strep Support for every pregnant woman to be informed about group B Strep, after research found that one in five women have not heard of the disease.
Group B Strep (also known as Strep B or GBS) is a normal bacterium carried by around one in five adults, usually with no symptoms or side-effects. It is also the most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies. These infections happen when the bacteria are transmitted to the baby around labour.
These infections can be very serious and can cause conditions such as sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. If left untreated, a GBS infection can kill a newborn baby within hours. On average, two babies each day in the UK develop a GBS infection and each week, one baby dies from a GBS infection and another is left with a life limiting disability.
Group B Strep Support is offering free copies of their new information leaflet on the disease to all NHS maternity units. This leaflet, written with experts at the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (RCOG), explains when a baby is at increased risk of GBS infection, and how to reduce that risk. The UK ‘best practice’ guidelines recommend that this leaflet should be provided to all pregnant women.
Group B Strep Support believe all pregnant women should also be informed that they can take a simple, safe test between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy to see if they’re carrying GBS. Currently the RCOG says that this test (the Enriched Culture Medium or ECM test) should only be offered to women who carried GBS in their previous pregnancy. The ECM test is becoming increasingly available in NHS hospitals.
James Morris MP said
“Group B Strep causes potentially fatal infection in newborn babies, but shockingly around one in every five pregnant women haven’t even heard of it. I’m supporting Group B Strep Support’s work to make sure every pregnant woman in Halesowen & Rowley Regis is told about group B Strep”
Jane Plumb MBE, Chief Executive of Group B Strep Support said:
"Knowing about group B Strep when you’re pregnant and in the early weeks after birth can make a massive difference – most group B Strep infections in newborn babies can be prevented, and early treatment can and does save lives. We hope our information leaflet will be a good start to raising awareness of GBS but more still needs to be done to make sure that no pregnant woman is left in the dark. "
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