Depending on where you are in your pregnancy, you may or may not have heard about the "GBS" test. What is it and why is it important?
GBS stands for group B strep, and it is an infection that can get passed from mother to baby during delivery. It is a bacteria that can be found in a significant, although nor majority, percentage of healthy women. Most of these women will not become ill, but if the bacteria gets passed to the baby it can be quite dangerous. Therefore, most doctors will do a test on the mother in the 37th week of pregnancy to see if she is positive. This is a simple, internal swipe, so blood test, so it's fairly easy on the mother, and can be very important to the baby's health.
Most of the time, if the mother tests positive, the doctor will administer antibiotics through and IV during delivery. This greatly reduces the chance that the baby will contract the infection or be harmed by it.
