Our first experience with the GBS bacterium was with the birth of our daughter Isabelle, who was born on 18 February 2000. After a somewhat difficult delivery at the hospital, as she was in a complete breech, everything seemed to be going well and I was due to pick up mother and daughter the following day. However, on the way to the hospital, I received an unexpected call telling me that things were not going well and that Isabelle had vomited and had almost choked on it. Luckily, as they were still at the hospital, they were able to act quickly and she was then brought to the neonatal unit. It didn’t take long before they suspected she had a GBS infection and even before the blood test results came back, they started treatment with antibiotics. After a few days, it actually turned out to be a GBS infection and Isabelle had to stay in the hospital for two weeks, because she had to finish the course of treatment.
Luckily, she recovered well and did not suffer any lasting effects because they were able to act quickly.
Because of our experience with Isabelle, we knew that with the next pregnancy we would immediately be placed under direct care of the gynaecologist and would be given a preventive course of antibiotics before the birth.
Our son Lyor was also in complete breech position and therefore, after consultation with the gynaecologist, a C-section was planned. In this situation, the gynaecologist did not consider it necessary to administer antibiotics preventively as the waters had not been broken for a long time and there was no risk of infection during the delivery. However, when Lyor was born on 26 February 2002, he was monitored the first 24 hours for any symptoms of a GBS infection. But an infection stayed away completely and therefore, after 5 days of regaining their strength after the C-section, my wife and Lyor were able to go home.