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POPPY — ENGLAND
Born November 26, 2012 Early-onset Mother's GBS Status: Not tested Gestational Age: 41 weeks Age Harmed: A few hours old |
Hi I wanted to share my story and a picture of my baby girl Poppy looking poorly just a few hours after she was born. At about the same time I started shivering and had a fever so was asked to do a vaginal swab and had blood taken for testing. They said I had an infection so they put me on IV antibiotics.
Then later my family visited and looking back now, I can see how Poppy's mood and appearance had changed from her first pictures. My 3 year old daughter came to visit her new baby sister and tried to comfort her while she cried out a high pitched painful sounding cry which I didn’t think anything of at the time. Then later that night she was crying out and sort of jerking, as I was unwell I asked the midwife if they could take her while I tried to sleep for an hour or so.
Then they came and woke me and asked if they could do a pin prick blood test to check her blood sugar levels, these were fine so they took her off again. They settled her for a while and gave her back to me. The next morning they noticed the jerking again and got a doctor to look at her. Then they took her down to the pediatric ward and took a blood sample and did 2 lumbar punctures. By this time I was crying hysterically and thought the worst. They treated her for meningitis as a precaution. While waiting for blood cultures, they let her return to the ward with me telling me if she got worse they would have to admit her downstairs. I had to take her down for IV antibiotics regularly, By that time I had forgotten I was ill, too.
They confirmed she had gotten group b strep, something I had never heard of. They found this out from my blood cultures as I had been infected with it too! I then felt lucky that during labour there was meconium in my waters and that they had to keep us in to monitor her for that. Otherwise we would have been at home and would have probably put up with Poppy's crying thinking that is what babies did and it may have been too late for her by the time we had noticed she wasn’t acting like a normal newborn. After 6 days full of blood tests etc we were off the antibiotics and allowed to go home. I thought it was strange that my first daughter and I didn’t have any problems with this. It just doesn’t always show up.
~ Hannah Harris
Hannah shares her story on Facebook
Then later my family visited and looking back now, I can see how Poppy's mood and appearance had changed from her first pictures. My 3 year old daughter came to visit her new baby sister and tried to comfort her while she cried out a high pitched painful sounding cry which I didn’t think anything of at the time. Then later that night she was crying out and sort of jerking, as I was unwell I asked the midwife if they could take her while I tried to sleep for an hour or so.
Then they came and woke me and asked if they could do a pin prick blood test to check her blood sugar levels, these were fine so they took her off again. They settled her for a while and gave her back to me. The next morning they noticed the jerking again and got a doctor to look at her. Then they took her down to the pediatric ward and took a blood sample and did 2 lumbar punctures. By this time I was crying hysterically and thought the worst. They treated her for meningitis as a precaution. While waiting for blood cultures, they let her return to the ward with me telling me if she got worse they would have to admit her downstairs. I had to take her down for IV antibiotics regularly, By that time I had forgotten I was ill, too.
They confirmed she had gotten group b strep, something I had never heard of. They found this out from my blood cultures as I had been infected with it too! I then felt lucky that during labour there was meconium in my waters and that they had to keep us in to monitor her for that. Otherwise we would have been at home and would have probably put up with Poppy's crying thinking that is what babies did and it may have been too late for her by the time we had noticed she wasn’t acting like a normal newborn. After 6 days full of blood tests etc we were off the antibiotics and allowed to go home. I thought it was strange that my first daughter and I didn’t have any problems with this. It just doesn’t always show up.
~ Hannah Harris
Hannah shares her story on Facebook
To learn more about Perinatal & GBS Misconceptions, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of Preterm Labor, click HERE.
To learn more about the Signs & Symptoms of GBS Infection, click HERE.
To learn more about Why Membranes Should NOT Be Stripped, click HERE.
To learn more about How to Help Protect Your Baby from Group B Strep (GBS), click HERE.