GBS Petition to the Prime Minister, January 2008

In conjunction with Group B Strep Support, Pregnancy & birth magazine petitioned the Prime Minister for every woman in the UK to be offered a sensitive test for group B Streptococcus (GBS) at 35-37 weeks of pregnancy on the NHS, and for every pregnant woman to be given accurate information about GBS as a routine part of her antenatal care. It's too late now to sign that petition, but you can see it, together with the names of the petitioners - over 11,300 signed - at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/groupbstrep/.

[To the right, Jane Plumb, Chairman of Group B Strep Support, hands the petition in at 10 Downing Street under the watchful eye of Nicholas Soames MP.]

Carrying GBS is normal - up to 30% of adults do, usually in the intestines although in women it's very common in the vagina. Carrying GBS causes no symptoms and requires no treatment. GBS can be passed to a baby around labour but usually this isn’t a problem. Sadly though, for some babies, it can be serious, causing blood poisoning, pneumonia and meningitis. However, testing women late in pregnancy - and offering antibiotics through a vein at intervals once labour has started to those whose babies are at higher risk - would prevent 80% or more of all GBS infections in newborn babies. Reliable testing is not currently available in the UK but GBSS believes it should be – which is why we presented the petition to the Prime Minister.

Above outside 10 Downing Street - back row l-r Nicholas Soames MP, Philip Hollobone MP, Susanne Langley. Front row l-r Jeffrey Donaldson MP MLA, Dr Chris Steele MBE, Jane Plumb, Theresa May MP, Debbie Slater, Anne-Marie O'Leary (Pregnancy & birth), Nia Griffith MP, Dawn Holwell.

Please ask your MP to support this campaign. There's more information on how to do this below and on the Awareness page here.

We delivered the Petition to No. 10 Downing Street on 23 January 2008, along with representatives from Pregnancy and Birth and supportive MPs and GBSS members. Every person who signed the petition should have received two emails detailing the Government's responses to the issues raised.

PETITION UPDATE ONE, 01 February 2008

The Prime Minister's Office has responded to our petition and you can view their response here:   http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page14453.   Click here to see GBSS's comments to the Government's response. 

PETITION UPDATE TWO, 06 March 2008

The Secretary of State of Health, the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP, responded to the letter we submitted with the petition - You can view his response here:  http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page14900.  Click here  to see GBSS's comments to his response.

Lots of people have not found the Government's response helpful - below are just some of the comments we've received:

"Just had the reply from 10 Downing Street by e-mail to the petition we all signed. What a cop out! I don’t agree with their findings. When my 1st son was born I didn’t know I had GBS - I only found out just before my 2nd son was born as I went to a private consultant with something else and she found I had GBS otherwise I wouldn’t have known." SD

"Please enlighten me as to reason Govt. appears not to be taking GBSS's proposal on Board. Sensitive test for all mums does NOT involve them all having antibiotics. I cannot understand the reasoning for refusing routine testing of all pregnant mums - unless the reason is financial . If this is so, do not be put off!" AP

"I for one am absolutely appalled that the government seem to think it unnecessary to offer routine testing when more than 40% of women who contract GBS have no known risk factors. What's more, counting 'being a GBS carrier' as a risk factor is just ridiculous. How is a woman supposed to know she is a GBS carrier without being tested for it?

Also, their comment that the majority of severely affected cases could be prevented by targeting the high risk factor group is simply unacceptable. What about the minority of cases who are not in the high risk factor group? Are the health and well-being of their children unimportant? While pregnant with my son I was not given ANY information about GBS; as a result I had passed the deadline for testing before I realised that a test, or indeed GBS itself existed. I had to ask my midwife for advice and I was fobbed off with a leaflet and given the impression that GBS really wasn't anything to worry about. If I am a carrier, my son could have been affected and I would have been absolutely disgusted at the ignorance of the government on this issue. " Claire Cumberland

"In July last year my partner paid for me to have the test and it came back positive and I had to have iv antibiotics whilst in labour, but without the private test we would not have known and what may of happened? We don't know. I feel very strongly that the Governmemt are just fobbing us off. We are not asking for them to willy nilly hand out antibiotics to women in labour. We want the test given out for free." KB

"I am highly dissatisfied with the government’s response to the GBS petition. This reply implies that more information on GBS is now available – however, the onus is still very much on parents to be to know of GBS in order to be able to look it up or ask their midwife about it. And if you don’t know you don’t ask. Sadly, the first we knew of GBS was when our first child was diagnosed with a severe infection at 18 hours old when it far too late to learn about testing or preventative antibiotics. And now in my third pregnancy I have not been given the NHS Pregnancy Book as I presume I am considered to be familiar with pregnancy, and my midwife dismisses GBS as ‘very rare’.

In my experience, and the many mothers I chat to on internet Mother & Baby message-boards, the RCOG guidelines have not been consistently adopted, and neither do midwives nor the government take GBS seriously at all. I just fail to understand why my eldest daughter, left blind with severe cerebral palsy, had to be my test for GBS when an inexpensive and reliable swab exists?" Leesa Yeo

"I was tested routinely in Australia with my first child and I have been searching the internet as there was no mention of the test in my antenatal pack from my doctor. I tested positive to GBS and did have the antibiotic drip during labour. I intend to discuss with the midwife next week and if I have to pay I will do. I think it is disgusting when I read the response from Downing Street to your petition. I will ensure to pass on the info to anyone I know who is expecting." Jo Dissanayake

What can you do?

What are your thoughts? Were you, like us, so hopeful of a more positive response from a Government espousing choice and informed decision making by pregnant women? And then hugely disappointed in the Government's reply?

If, like us, you find this official reply disappointing and evasive, please join us in continuing to press for improvements.

• Send your views to Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London, SW1
• Write to your MP (at House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA and you can find out who he/she is by clicking here) and ask them to raise the points and ask the questions above. And tell them why you support offering routine testing for GBS carriage and giving information on GBS to all pregnant women and ask how your MP can help achieve this. Involving MPs really does have an effect. We have made real progress over the years so that the Government and medical establishment no longer ignore GBS: progress would have been much slower without the backing of concerned MPs. For more information on contacting your MP, together with recent questions about GBS asked in the House of Commons, go to Contact your MP.
• If you have other suggestions, or would like to volunteer to raise funds for our work (we get no Government funding), or want to help in other ways, please contact us.

Thank you.

Above outside 10 Downing Street - Nicholas Soames MP, Philip Hollobone MP, Theresa May MP, Dr Chris Steele MBE, Jane Plumb plus parents and representatives of Pregnancy & birth magazine and GBSS