Natural Birth
ironadxn
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Group B Antibiotics Alternatives
ironadxn
member
I tested positive for group B strep and really don't want to receive IV antibiotics to treat it. First, I plan on laboring at home as long as physically possible and if my water breaks I would need to go in for the IV, and second, after doing some research, I know I don't have increased risk factors for passing the bacteria to my baby and don't think the percentages for successful treatment outweigh the possible cons of receiving the IV.
So- anyone know of natural remedies to try and rid myself of group B strep? I've read garlic, echinacea, and vitamin C but have no idea in what amounts or when to start/stop treatment. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
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Re: Group B Antibiotics Alternatives
I'm not saying IV antibiotics is inconvenient, just not proven to be effective enough for me to want to go that route if I can do anything at home as an alternative. Ensuring the health of my child would never be a decision based on convenience- not saying that's what you said, just making sure that feeling didn't come across in my original post.
Thanks ladies for the advice. Unfortunately I'm delivering in a hospital with no access to a tub in the labor rooms
My husband was just not comfortable with the idea of a home birth with a midwife, so I compromised and have a very strict birth plan written and have had lengthy talks with my OB about being as intervention free as physically possible...hopefully by baby #2 DH will be on board with a birthing center or home birth.
And secondary- thanks for all the specific suggestions. I'd heard about the garlic a while ago and had forgotten about it, thanks for the reminder!
I'll preface this with I AM NOT A DOCTOR. However I trust the information below because it was given to me in a handout, a few months ago, by the birth center here in our town. This is the protocol the midwives and OBGYN at the birth center use. Notice you choose EITHER the essential oil protocol OR the tampon protocol - not both. I found the essential oils to be way too expensive so I'm going the tampon route. Here is their protocol for GBS:
1. Get more rest. Rest during the day and get more sleep before midnight. You may need to reduce your workload or recruit help to do this.
2. Hygiene: Strep love to live in the rectum, so wipe front to back. Always use clean cloths when bathing. Launder undergarmets in HOT water and / or bleach. Use 1 cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle. (I'm also using baby wipes to wipe rather than toilet paper for now)
3. Reduce or eliminate simple sugars. These are found in sweets, cake, cookies, donuts, chocolate, sweet tea, soda, etc. Infectious organisms thrive on high levels of glucose. Refined sugar also has the effect of weakening your immune system.
4. Drink plenty of pure water. You can add a bit of lemon or healthy herbal tea to the water, but nothing else.
5. Eliminate ALL caffeine from your diet; it weakens the immune system.
6. Eat more greens. Add one large mixed salad per day or one or more servings of cooked greens for the minerals and vitamins.
7. Take Vitamin C with Bioflavanoids (500 mg every 4 waking hours)
8. Take 2 garlic tablets / caps per day
9. Echinacea can be taken either as a tea or tincture (drops in a liquid) 3 times daily. To make the tea, use 1 oz of the root to 1 pint of boiling water and steep for 6-8 hours. It is specific to strep and staph infections and stimulates the body's defense systems.
10. Take probiotics daily (acidophilus-binfidus)
11. Essential Oil Protocol OR Tampon Protocol:
Essential Oils: It is imperative that the oils are high quality. Put the following in a Double O gelatin or vegetable capsule: (MAKE SURE you are buying the edible types of essential oils, not the type that you use to make your house smell good - they are often sold in the same area of the health stores!!!)
5 drops lemon essential oil
3 drops oregano essential oil
5 drops Mountain Savory essential oil
Tampon: Soak an organic tampon in 1.5 tsp olive oil (high quality) and 10 drops of tea tree oil. LEave soaked tampon in overnight for 6-10 hours. Do this daily for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy. If needed you can retest for GBS after 14-21 days of treatment.
12. Other Methods (instead of essential oil or tampon):
-Garlic Clove: Insert peeled garlic clove (with string attached - stick a needle w/ a string on it through the clove and tie knots) into vagina nightly for 3-5 nights.
13. Chlorhexidine (Hibiclens) Protocol for Labor:
-Chlorhexidine vaginal wash at the onset of labor or at the rupture of membranes, whichever comes first, repeated every 6 hours. You can purchase at most drug-stores. Method:
-2 tbsp Hibiclens (4% Chlorhexidine solution) mixed w/ 20 oz sterile water
-You may be most comfortable in a squatting or sitting position (even on the toilet) or lying down with your hips slightly elevated.
-Put 4 oz of the mixture into a periwash bottle. USe entire amount for each application.
-Slowly instill the solution into the vagina under very gentle pressure using a peribottle
-Begin at onset of labor or rupture of membranes and repeat every 6 hours.
-A woman can self-administer the flush herself or w/ assistance from a spouse
I am gbs+ also and this is what my doula sent me when I asked her:
#1 if you retest and test negative, do they still connect you to an antibiotic?
#2 you will do super doses of probiotics on your nipples and internally for you and for baby.
OPTIONS for testing negative
#1
Echinacea Tincture - once per day - you can get this in a capsule too.
Cinnamon Tea (3 sticks in one pint of water)
Acidophilus - 6 capsules a day
Vitamin E 400IU daily
High potency Garlic 6capsules daily
Vitamin C 500mg daily
option #2
break off and peel a clove of garlic, insert high into the vagina before bed, sleep with it in, remove in the morning, usually comes out on its own with first mornings pee or poop. You can stitch a string to it to pull it out easier. Repeat this for 5 nights on the 6th day get the GBS test. Before going to your apt wash perineum and rectum with soapy water and put on clean underwear.
I was under the impression that there is no surefire way to completley clear your system of it, but at least you can flush it out in hopes of getting a negative result and avoid the penicillin. My doctor will still do the iv even if i retest negative
I agree with this. I'm all for natural just-about-everything... but this isn't something I'd risk. It's just too scary, IMO.
It's an issue (it = antibiotics) because antibiotics wipe out not just the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria. My 1st child had IV antibiotics and several rounds of oral antibiotics for another infection. His physician is convinced that it was this insult on his immune system (too many antibiotics at too young of age) that has caused his food allergies. Basically it wiped out all the good bacteria in his gut and burned "holes" in the lining of his stomach which has caused issues w/ food sensitivities, even 2 years later. We're still working on getting his flora re-balanced. In addition, as a PP has stated, research HAS shown that the outcomes for neonates born to GBS + moms have the same outcome regardless of whether or not antibiotics are given. Some hospitals are finally catching onto the idea that perhaps it's a bad idea to perpetuate superbugs (by giving out antibiotics too readily) and instead they do a wait and see approach w/ the newborn - if any signs of infection, then treat.
You can't prevent everything in life. You can't protect yourself against everything.
Well, my 7 day old newborn premie went through all the pricking and testing. At 7 days old he was lethargic and not eating so we took him to the ER. Of course standard procedure is to do the testing; they also admitted him for monitoring and preventative antibiotics. Tests came back positive for listeria - After 7 attempts at a spinal tap, they were able to get 1 drop of fluid which came back negative indicating that the original tests were contaminated. So as suspected, he was perfectly fine except dehydrated (due to a poor latch, due to being a premie). I was GBS positive, didn't receive antibiotics, my newborn didn't receive any treatment for GBS when he was born - and throughout that WHOLE ordeal 7 days later they never once were worried about GBS. That said something to me - spoke to how TINY the chance was that he would have had an infection. In fact I don't think they even tested him for that.
My point is that - as a mom I have had a newborn go through all the testing including spinal taps (nurses holding him down, screaming his head off) but I'd make the same decision again - NO antibiotics.