After a pregnancy of almost 42 weeks, I gave birth in 3 hours (from the waters breaking until the birth) to my third child, a healthy, beautiful daughter of 8 pounds.
All seemed to be going well, only feeding was tough and she grunted when touched. On the third day, she skipped a whole feed and when I woke her on the fourth morning (she already slept through the first night), she still wouldn’t feed. She also twitched her arm and leg twice. Although she was a rosy-cheeked baby, with a healthy temperature and a lovely pink complexion, and so on, I couldn’t help feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
It was Friday 5 May, and my own midwife had visited that morning, but our maternity assistant insisted that the midwife on duty come back that afternoon. Mayke was sent to the hospital, because the midwife thought she was low on sugar due to the poor feeding.
Arriving at the hospital (just in the back of the car in her baby car seat), she started twitching her arm and leg again. The nurse recognised this as seizures and this set off alarm bells! Half an hour after arriving, Mayke stopped breathing and she seemed much more seriously ill than anyone had suspected.
The blood test results showed she had a serious infection and a later blood culture and spinal tap revealed the diagnosis Group B streptococcus infection, with that she not only had an infection, but also meningitis. After 2 weeks in hospital with antibiotics administered via a drip, Mayke was finally allowed to go home.
Now, Mayke is almost 9 years old. She is a great girl, happy and extremely motivated to learn as much as possible. As a result of the meningitis, she has a mild left-side paralysis, trouble finding words, a substantial concentration disorder, and a developmental delay of 2 years. She goes to a regular primary school, but follows her own learning pathway and has double special educational needs. The school is fantastic! They do so much for her and she is improving every day and astonishes everyone time and again with her progress.
Even though we are immensely proud of our daughter, many of her lingering effects could have been prevented had we known about the existence and symptoms of Group B streptococcus infection. And actually, we have been very lucky, as things could have turned out much worse for her.