GBS??

Ok. I thought I was pretty much done with pregnancy stuff and that I was in the home stretch with nothing to worry about. Then I went to my 37 week midwife visit and heard the results from my GBS test. I'm positive! I have group B strep.

Not having expected this, I didn't really know what it meant. It means that I have to have antibiotics pumped into me during labor. I'm so disappointed. It was a shot to my pride, first of all. I thought I was having this great healthy pregnancy. Apparently this is a totally random thing and couldn't be prevented. I don't like hearing that though, I'm always like, "it must have been something. What could I have done differently to avoid this? Random? Pshh."

So, before, I was going to deny even having a port placed for a possible IV or drugs, because I didn't want anything, and if I really really needed something, they can always take 30 seconds to place an IV. Now, that's not an option because a bacteria in my GI tract could be fatal to my baby. A bacteria that isnt a danger to me and is random and normal and blah blah. :(.

So now, it makes me have this irrationally unhealthy view of my body as this enemy zone and not a beautiful place that can healthily deliver my baby without medical intervention. It's now a negative space that needs to be addressed and is on the attack and can harm my baby. That doesn't feel good.

Antibiotics bother me in general and I don't like having to take them unless it's absolutely necessary. Apparently, this is one of those situations. If I don't take them, my baby could get really sick and even get meningitis. Ah! I'm allergic to penicillin, which is normally what they use to treat this during labor. She said I'll be on Clindamycin. Instead. I've taken that before 3-4 years ago when I went to a string of different gynocologists because I thought I had a bacterial infection because I was being obsessive about discharge. (sorry, that's kinda gross). After seeing a few different people and being prescribed Clindamycin, Cipro, and I don't remember what else, and Nothing was changing, I saw the nurse practitioner on campus. She told me I had never had anything wrong and that I was just healthy, young, and fertile. I can't remember whether I finished any of those antibiotics. I've also taken one of those for a UTI within the past year or 2. I just hope my body is not resistant to them, if I didn't finish the per scribed course or anything. I read that GBS can be resistant to Clindamycin sometimes, so that doesn't leave me satisfied.

I know I'm being overkill with all of this. It's really put a bump in my plans. I know that is ok. I just have so many questions now and I wish I wasn't freaking out a little.

If my water breaks, and I don't go into labor, I will have to be induced, because the strep can reach the baby without the protective amniotic fluid. So then it's antibiotics AND pitocin and then who knows what else...

I had this last midwife visit right before work, so when I got there, I felt like I had drunk 3 cups of coffee and was so jittery and up tight about it. I took a lavender pill to chill out and it helped me be normal again. Then, I started to research in some of the books written by midwives I trust. Nothing told me how to cure it so that I could avoid antibiotics. I found several elixirs and things to try to strengthen my immune system. But nothing will fix it.

Apparently, the bacteria can colonize, so even if I got retested and it was negative, the little buggers could show up again. So putting cloves of garlic or goldenseal pills into my vagina won't help a bacteria that's in my GI tract. I'm taking tinctures of Astragalus, Echinacea, and Burdock root and then 500mg of food based, raw Vitamin C along with my regular multi and Red Raspberry leaf. My bed side looks like an apothecary's table. But none of these things will allow me to avoid antibiotics. :(. I'm disappointed.

Prayer, please?