We don't restrict skin contact because a mother is GBS positive here.
Pregnant women are not tested for its presence unless they experience
prelabor ruptured membranes, premature onset of labor (before 36 weeks),
have outright clinical signs of infection, or have previously had a baby who
required special care for a strep infection.

Current protocols in Norway re: group B strep in pregnant women are to do
nothing anyhow, unless the mother has had a previous child who developed an
infection from the strep, in which case the mother is given IV antibiotics
in labor according to a set schedule, and the baby is *observed for*
incipient infection after birth. There is a low threshhold for starting IV
treatment of newborns at any sign of infection, but mothers and babies are
kept together just as all other mothers and babies are, as long as their
conditions do not require special care.

You may be able to find evidence to support ENSURING immediate STS for these
babies, as they are at greater risk if they are first colonized with the
skin flora of someone other than their mother, and if the initiation of
breastfeeding is impeded.

I'll be interested to hear whether there is any evidence at all either way!

Rachel Myr
home again after the usual voyage down the coast of Sweden, up through
Kattegat and across Skagerrak, with the usual paradisical Nordic summer
weather keeping us company :-)

             ***********************************************

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