A HEARTBROKEN mum is calling for all women to be screen for a common bacteria that left her baby brain damaged.
Chelsea O’Brien passed the Group B Strep (GBS) bacteria onto her now four-week-old daughter, Olivia, while she was giving birth.
GBS is commonly found in the vaginal tract and, while harmless to mothers, can lead to serious complications for babies including meningitis, septicaemia and pneumonia, and even death.
Little Olivia, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, eventually began to suffer seizures, meningitis and septicaemia as a result of the bacteria.
The bacteria, which is present in about one in four women, can be prevented from affecting a newborn if a mother who tested positive for it takes antibiotics ahead of labour.
The NHS does not currently recommend screening for GBS despite women living in other countries – including the US, Canada, France, Germany and Slovenia – being routinely checked.
Olivia was almost killed by the infection and has been left with brain damage – though it will be years before her worried mum and dad know how this will affect her life.
One in every 2,000 babies is diagnosed with a Strep B infection, according to the NHS, but doctors and midwives do not test pregnant mums for the bacteria.
Now 22-year-old Chelsea is calling for the simple test to be compulsory.
Chelsea said: “It’s heart-breaking because there is nothing we can do and they don’t know how disabled she is going to be.
“They didn’t swab me for Strep B before I gave birth but if they had they could have stopped it from harming Olivia.
“It’s so easy for people to just be swabbed. They do it for chlamydia testing, so I don’t understand why they’re not doing it to save a baby’s life.”
MORE THAN A RASH What is meningitis, how do you get it, what are the symptoms and what is the meningitis B vaccine trial?
Chelsea first suspected something was wrong when Olivia, then two weeks old, began to make strange grunting sounds on April 4.
She was taken to Grimsby’s Diana Princess of Wales Hospital by ambulance where Chelsea and her partner, Ashley Rowbotham, thought their baby would be treated for something minor.
“I thought she had a temperature, not that there was something really wrong. I was so scared,” Chelsea recalled.
“Ashley was driving home from work when I told him I had to get an ambulance for her.
“We were waiting to be seen for about 15 minutes and Olivia just lay there and I thought she was falling asleep. It was like she was lifeless.
“Her tongue was at the back of her throat and she wasn’t really moving.
“Suddenly we were being told she might have meningitis and that she needed to stay in hospital. We were all really shaken up by it.”
A CT scan the next day revealed the youngster did have meningitis and she was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Chelsea and Ashley moved with her, leaving their two-year-old son Tommy with family two hours away back at home.
The little girl was fitted with a breathing tube and Chelsea and Ashley were told she may not make it through the night.
But she pulled through and scans the next day revealed the devastating news that she had suffered brain damage as a result of the illness.
“They say she definitely has brain damage but all we can do right now is just be there to support her,” Chelsea said.
“It could be anything from moving her hands and feet to developmental problems or even something to do with her personality.
“She’s still got a feeding tube in so we have no idea if she can even swallow.
“We are going to love her no matter what and we just have to be strong for her. We’re taking each day as it comes.”
Olivia has now spent almost half of her short life in hospital.
Edward Morris, vice president of clinical quality for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said: “Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is one of the many bacteria which may be present in our bodies and is the most common cause of severe infection in babies during the first three months of life.
“It occurs naturally in the digestive system and lower vaginal tract of around a quarter of women at any one time, and does not normally cause any harm to pregnant women or their babies.
“Current RCOG guidance does not recommend universal antenatal screening for GBS which is in line with recommendations made by the UK National Screening Committee.
“It found that there is no clear evidence to show that routine testing would do more good than harm.”
MORE ON MENINGITIS
Last year new guidance from the Royal College said any woman who goes into labour before 37 weeks should be offered antibiotics to prevent passing on Group B Strep (GBS).
The updated guidance to NHS trusts also says women who have tested positive for GBS in a previous pregnancy should be tested at 35 to 37 weeks in further pregnancies to see if they will need the antibiotics when they give birth.
GBS is the UK’s most common cause of life-threatening infection in newborn babies and is on the rise, with 500 babies infected with it in the UK in 2015.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours