Stupid blood test results

Well it seems that this pregnancy has been plagued by fuzzy results from all tests which has been very annoying. Nothing actually wrong has eventuated from these fuzzy results, but they have all been a little stressful while waiting for further clarifications.

So my last round of blood tests revealed two things that may or may not be a problem:

• Group B Strep
• Gestational Thrombocytopenia

What are these strange things? Well, Group B Strep is a normal gut bacteria that about 40% of women have and it doesn't seem to have many symptoms unless you get an actual infection from it, but during labour it can pass on to the baby and if an infection develops it can be quite serious. I haven't been tested for this before, and neither have my friends with children, and apparently it is one of the 'new' maternal tests that are being done now. It is routine in the US and if you don't have the test done, they assume you are positive and treat during labour as a precaution.

So the test shows I am a Group B Strep carrier. I can only assume that I exposed Preston to this when I had him but since I didn't know about it, it wasn't a problem. Now that it is a known factor, I have to have treatment which I'm not very happy about. As soon as I go into labour, I get IV penicillin as a precaution on the off chance that on that day I suddenly develop an infection. Antibiotics during pregnancy and breastfeeding pretty much goes against all my values so I'm in two minds of what to do. I suppose I could risk not taking the treatment and hope for the best, or do I take the medically sensible route to prevent emergency? I'm quite concerned about the effects of antibiotics on the developing baby's digestive system and subsequent risk of allergies and health problems.

The other thing the tests showed is that my platelet levels are dropping and I may be at risk of developing gestational thrombocytopenia which is a blood clotting problem and could lead to haemmorrhage. This is a bit annoying too obviously, but thinking back, every surgery I've had (and Preston's birth) has always been followed with the comment "Oh you lost quite a lot of blood which we weren't expecting". But I think it was manageable and I didn't need a blood transfusion (as far as I know). So I think for me, this risk is fairly normal.

However, I've been doing my research and I've found the supplements that should do the trick for both issues, to prevent any outbreak of the strep b, and also to raise my blood platelet levels. I have to have another blood test this week so I'll be really curious to see how things have changed.

None of this requires you to be worried, it's just the results of over-testing for things and being super-aware of what could potentially happen.