Month / January 2017

by One Curious Mother

Strep In The Wrong Direction!

I have just spent weeks drafting the perfect (and longest) post for you all. Full of information and all the decisions to make when it comes to deciding what to include in your birth plan, I was desperate to share my most in depth post yet. However, in an unexpected change in situation within my pregnancy, I have been stifled by the uncommonly discussed topic of Group B Strep – a bacteria that 25% of people have in their bodies – that has pretty much made some of my major decisions for me. Thinking out loud, some would think that it’s helped me tackle those hard decisions like where to give birth but I beg to differ. Feeling kind of stripped of my breadth of choice, I decided to do some good old research into what Group B Strep is and exactly how it’s going to affect my birth plan now.

28d3ff9b289414e21421b8187254aea3-header-image-gbs-pinterest

As you’ve probably guessed from my previous posts, it’s very hard to avoid talking about medical topics when it comes to pregnancy. As a natural phenomenon that requires medical care and attention there are always thousands of issues swarming the topic. Having recently discussed vaccinations and the use of dummies, I still feel it’s important to share every high and low step of this wonderful journey I am hazily bumbling along. Throughout my pregnancy, I have chosen to take pretty much all the necessary precautions advised to me by my midwife. I have agreed to have all the offered tests through scans or bloods being taken without question. I chose to have all my available jabs. I chose these to protect not only myself but my unborn baby too. After all of that, at 31 weeks pregnant, I wasn’t expecting to be told I have Group B Strep.

GBS is something I had never heard of. It wasn’t something that was addressed in my appointments, nor was it brought up during discussions for any of my tests. After foolishly turning to ‘Doctor Google’ to do my research, there’s no surprise I was left feeling nervous and worried for my unborn child. Now, at the fear of sounding too dramatic and a little over the top, although harmless for me, GBS can, in extremely rare cases be very serious for your baby. This is because GBS can be passed on to your baby during labour which has the potential to present itself in two ways: Early Onset GBS or Late Onset GBS. In some of the most serious cases, GBS has led to meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis. CUE THE PANIC… but not for me. I made a mature decision and decided to take a deep breath and look for factual information and advice around the subject; I left Doctor Google behind and found a few websites with clear information that made me feel somewhat sane again.

I hope this helps you if you’re in need of some clarity in between all this fog!

gbss-website

The first website was Group B Strep Support who came to the rescue to calm my nerves and educate my worried little brain. Both helpful and informative, the website clearly outlines what GBS is, how common it is, it’s dangers as well as their support in further research. Once I had read through all the information necessary, I felt so much calmer. Although some of the information on the website can seem scary, especially when talking about the more serious effects, I felt much more informed and educated on the matter.

The most important piece of information I found was that the top medical recommendation made by doctors and midwives to help prevent GBS passing on to the baby during labour is to have antibiotics as soon as labour begins. This is either by intravenously through a cannula (so a drip for about 20 minutes) or through slow injection (estimated to take about 5-10 minutes).  This is recommended to be administered to you at four hour intervals for Penicillin or eight hour intervals for Clindamycin. From a conversation with a midwife last week, it was suggested that Penicillin is more commonly offered whereas Clindamycin is then offered if you’re knowingly allergic. It was at this moment I realised that my expanse of choices had become quite restricted. To have the antibiotics, I need to be on a hospital ward – that means I have crossed off the idea of a home birth (which I didn’t want anyway) and a no for most midwife led units. There are midwife led units that do offer medicine for care but the one at my chosen hospital is not one of them. I had tossed and turned over the idea of a water birth but the idea of all that fluid put me off. I like the ideas of a bath and using water don’t get me wrong but using it as pain relief just doesn’t seem like enough for me. GBS stifles this idea as needing to be hooked up every 4 hours to a drip is going to be a little difficult and unsanitary as you can imagine as the cannula could get wet. However, I believe I am still allowed to use a regular bath and is still encouraged as it can help speed labour along but you must keep you hand out and dry! On the other hand of all this, there is the option not to have any antibiotics. If you should choose not this option, this is where GBS can become serious. As mentioned earlier there are two different types of GBS: early onset and late onset. The information available from the NHS website talks more in depth about both, what each means and the symptoms to look out for.

nhs-gbs

Early Onset, which develops within 24 hours, carries symptoms such as ‘being floppy and unresponsive, not feeding well, grunting, high or low temperature, fast or slow heart rates, fast or slow breathing rates and/or irritability’. IF your baby is to become infected there is a chance that ‘even with the best medical care the infection can sometimes cause life-threatening complications’. The information leaflet goes on to discuss the chances of it becoming serious. One in ten babies born with GBS will die and one in five babies born with GBS will develop issues such as ‘cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and serious learning difficulties‘ but there are still chances that a baby born with GBS can make a full recovery and survive with no complications. Late Onset is a little different from Early Onset. It’s only classed as ‘Late’ if it develops in the baby after seven days or more. This then suggests that it is not linked to pregnancy and an infection could have been picked up from someone or something else. This will be handled with care and your baby will be tested and monitored to determine whether GBS is or isn’t present.

itv-this-morning-screenshot

There’s a lot of reading here and it renders a very uneasy feeling with me. As commonly untested and therefore untreated, this can leave a lot of your baby’s health to chance but spreading the word is easy and could be the difference between making that doctors appointment for a swab or not bothering. The topic was this week discussed on popular morning TV show This Morning – in my eyes a very good step in the right directed to see GBS starting to emerge into the mainstream media. The six-and-a-half-minute clip shows an interview with a bereaved mother, Fiona Paddon, and medical professional, Dr Chris. They began the discussion with the heartbreaking story of how Fiona lost her son at just 9 days old. Like myself and I’m sure many others, Fiona had no idea that GBS even existed or that she was a carrier of the bacteria. There was no mention of it during appointments, tests or NCT classes. This is where Dr Chris steps in to talk about the many petitions over the years that have been signed and repeatedly ignored. For the sake of a small swab test carried out between 35 and 37 weeks, so many babies could be saved from contracting life changing illnesses or meeting death just by mothers, midwives & doctors knowing that GBS is present. It’s that simple.

Since mentioning it to a midwife when I was recently in hospital for monitoring, I now have a big square sticker on the front of my maternity notes to help whichever midwife I have when I go into labour – the sticker is a bit like the one at the top of this post. With this in mind, I think my personal decisions will all become a bit more final after my next midwife appointment when I will be able to talk and come away with as much information as possible to go away and write my birth plan. I already have an idea of how I will plan this already. It’s been decided for me that I will be heading to the delivery suite, accepting the antibiotics provided, having any pain relief I can have whilst on the antibiotics, using the bath (if not too traumatised by the thought of a water birth) and eventually when little one makes his grand entrance, I will be staying in hospital for 24-48 hours for observation… or something along those lines!

GBS has definitely been one of the more difficult subjects to tackle and I want to thank you (again and again) for having a read. Now let’s do our bit spread the word and make more and more women aware of GBS and how it can be handled!

One Curious Mother x

Sources:
http://www.gbss.org.uk
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/2037.aspx?categoryid=54
http://www.itv.com/thismorning/health/group-b-strep-why-dont-we-test-for-it
(header image) https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjbz9z9j-LRAhWE6xQKHWH_BRMQjRwIBw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fuk.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F236157574190265969%2F&bvm=bv.145393125,bs.2,d.ZGg&psig=AFQjCNG92g6XdbZaos7F7tsfisv2fXlfNQ&ust=1485599612550243

 

by One Curious Mother

A Dummies Guide….

After my previous blog on the quite heavy topic of vaccinations, I wanted to continue to touch upon equally important issues that we have come across when making our ‘new parent’ decisions. Admittedly most are related to medical issues, of which neither of us are qualified nor clued up enough to give sole opinions; however, a little research never hurt anyone! This week I am looking at the equally contentious topic of dummies and working out how I feel about using them.

Dummy, soother, pacifier or binky – whichever name you prefer – there has always been a huge subject for debate with parents, parents-to-be and medical professionals surrounding the use or improper use of baby’s dummies. To start my research, I used my closest face-to-face medical research: my Grandfather. As a retired dental practitioner, whose profession ranged from surgery work to police call outs, he spent almost 30 years consumed by the role doing everything from routine fillings and helping at Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil assisting in the surgery department where he regularly saw and treated a fair few patients and their children. Always one for a horror story, he always tells me about how many women used to bring their babies in with horrendous tooth decay due to the use of dummies dipped in the super sugary concentrate Ribena. This, as you can imagine, would leave devastation to the child’s teeth and was often irreversible – something I will NOT be doing!

During my online research, I found a fair few articles surrounding dummy use is positive when dummies are used in a controlled and soothing way. I am taking this as meaning you don’t give a dummy to your child every time they cry but instead use it as a last resort when they are looking for comfort but are clean, dry, gas-free and fed OR to help them sleep through the night which again I’m guessing, eliminates the attachment and ‘security blanket’ effect. despite my guessing the biggest point I came across was the suggestion by many professionals over the years that the use of a dummies overnight can help reduce the chances of cot death by up to 90% (Please read below for stats).

In 2003, a BBC article was written talking about how The British Medical Journal carried out a study and found that ‘the benefit was greatest for children sleeping in an “adverse” environment.’ The article goes on to mention that dummies ‘may help stop babies from cutting off their air supply’ but then stated that the UK experts ‘welcomed the research, but stressed it was a small study.’ Just four years later in 2007, the BBC published another article talking about The American Academy of Paediatrics and how they had been advising parents that dummies could reduce the risk of cot death. The article goes on to read that the study, which was carried out by researchers in California, found that ‘giving a baby a dummy may reduce the risk of cot death by as much as 90%’ which takes the original statistics of 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 20,000 – up to ten times less likely! The year 2007 saw the first-time UK experts agreed and began promoting this fact. Coincidentally, as I mentioned with my Grandfather’s stories, this article goes on to stress the high importance of not dipping a dummy in anything sweet! Since then, in 2013 The Daily Mail (not always the most reliable source of media) talks about Australian research which also backs the idea of dummies reducing the risk of cot death and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) by regulating breathing and helping baby’s cardiac systems to ‘respond to blood pressure changes’. To wrap this all into one overview, in my opinion, all these articles back each other up. Each point made just relates back to the BBC articles I first read just adding more medical research evidence. Aside from the media led research articles I found, the trusty NHS have provided a bullet point guide to ways parents can prevent SIDS. This can be found using the following link:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/reducing-risk-cot-death.aspx

Moving on from this more factual research (and to lighten this up), I am heading towards the conclusion that I am fully willing to try out the use of a dummy if little one will take it and that I ween him off it before his first birthday to avoid attachment. This has led me to the next biggest decision: WHAT KIND OF DUMMY SHOULD I BUY!? So, what did I find I hear you ask… I started looking for dummies to choose from by singling out what I considered to be the most important aspects. I looked at three well-known brands and focused of what material, is it orthodontic, what the prices are and more importantly, what pattern and colour are they?

b86cc095076c45b5872f8376489b89e4
0202d99db2714b7792dac7ecff4a56ff
http://www.nuk.co.uk/product/finding-dory-size-1-0-6m-silicone-soothers-2-pack/

 To start my research, I came across NUK (found at http://www.nuk.co.uk/)
As the only soothers I could find that were Oral Health Foundation approved, NUK sells two different material types: silicone and latex. The silicone is described as ‘stronger and more durable’ whereas the latex is described as ‘popular with many parents because it is softer and more flexible which can make it easier for some babies to adapt to’. These dummies come in at just under £5 for two and seem to be very good value for money.

tommee-tippee-bpa-free-0-6-ptru1-23975802dt
tt-fun-style-soothers-3
 https://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/night-time-soothers // https://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/fun-style-soothers 

The next brand I researched were Tommee Tippee (found at https://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/soothing/soothers) who have branded their dummies as having a ‘symmetrical orthodontic shape’. These come in all sorts of colours and sizes and if you looked at either link above, the basic dummies are branded for different uses: Fun Style, Anytime, Air, Night Time, Moda, Cherry and Soft Rim. They also have a special ‘Fun Face’ range which are wonderfully bright and colourful. These also, like NUK, come in at just shy of £5 for two – however in Asda now they are 2 packs of two for £6. My ever-tight pocket jumped on this and brought a few packs to see if he will take to them as realistically, only testing them will answer that!

natursutten-1

http://www.natursutten.com/products/natursutten-original/anatomisk-mini/

The third and final brand I found are called Natursutten. Found at http://www.natursutten.com/ they are an ecological company that sell a range of ‘ecologically sustainable from pure natural rubber from the tree Hevea brasiliensis’. This is said to be designed ‘follows baby’s natural mouth movements’ – again all very like the previous two dummy brands but on the plus, they’re 100% natural and environmentally friendly and biodegradable. Their ‘Ortho Pacifiers are shaped quite differently to the NUK & Tommee Tippee, with the teat of the dummy looking like someone has squashed it diagonally, leave a flat diagonal edge which I imagine mimics the gap between the roof of the mouth and the tongue when a baby suckles. Although probably my first choice as they’re all organic and bio, they do some in at just over £7 per dummy which sets the price much higher than the others and only come in one colour. This seems like a little much to spend especially if the little one doesn’t take to it so maybe one I could try out at a later stage.

Through all my research and discussion here, I think I am willing to give dummies a try. Whilst secretly hoping he will take to them, I have brought a few varieties of the Tommee Tippee and plan to hope and pray that he will take comfort in them whilst breast feeding then magically forget about them at 11 months old… but hey, I spend a lot of time day dreaming these days! Thanks for sticking with me today through this heavy but important post.

Hope your January is not causing you to freeze your little toes off and you’re all snuggled up warm wherever you are!

One Curious Mother x

 

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4509240.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6229516.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2320167/Dummies-help-protect-babies-cot-death-regulating-heart-beats.html
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/reducing-risk-cot-death.aspx
http://www.nuk.co.uk/
https://www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/soothing/soothers
http://www.natursutten.com/

by One Curious Mother

The Hospital Bag

img_0241

As much as I would always like to think I am organised within an inch of my life, I am probably nowhere near. My apartment is a constant cleaning-in-progress mess, we still don’t have a nursery built and I not even begun to think about buying the big important stuff a baby requires. However, despite this the one thing I have decided I will be organised about is my hospital bag. The thought of being unprepared for his grand arrival is starting to terrify me and I feel I must nail this bag on the head even with no nursery or furniture! To start my preparations, as always, I’ve turned to our good old friend Google and done a bit of reading. Hello NetMums! We all know it’s not hard to end up reading an unbelievable and overwhelming number of forums, blogs and comments but I did come to one big conclusion: Everyone is different.

I am currently at 30 weeks and 3 days and have been made abundantly aware that I look positively enormous for someone who has just less than 10 weeks to go. (I’ll give you some context – I am only 5ft3, before pregnancy was a size 8/10 and from behind you can’t even tell I’m pregnant). I have begun to panic a bit at the thought of our little one arriving before his due date so decided to begin organising things to put this hospital bag together now I’ve brought a sturdy duffle bag.

To begin with my starting lists seemed to consist of a mixture of things for myself and the baby that I may or may not use. The more I thought about it, the more I realised I might work on a process of elimination basis and add or take things away as it gets closer and closer to ‘the big day’. Below are the things I’ve put in the bag for baby so far:

  • 2 ‘going home’ sleep suit – both with build in feet and scratch mittens
  • 1 full length baby grow – no feet or mittens
  • 2 newborn long sleeve bodysuits – just in case he’s tiny
  • 2 0-3-month-old short sleeve bodysuits
  • 1 0-3-month-old no sleeve bodysuit – in case he’s warm
  • 1 soft toy –  to stop him crying of course (this is being made so isn’t in the bag yet)
  • 4 muslin cloths – may need more, 4 seemed like a good starting point
  • 2-3 dribble bibs – please see above comment ^
  • 2-3 pairs of socks – different colours & thickness
  • 2 pairs of scratch mittens – baby’s nails can be sharp

I have only put a lot thought into items for the baby and I’m already being much slower picking the things I want to put in the bag for me. I’ve put this down to still being quite unsure about what kind of birth I am going to aim for – yes aim being the most important word here as I don’t believe anyone knows how a birth will unfold. Again, I have started looking at my birth plan but I will talk more about that in depth in be a future post no doubt. The starts of my ‘me list’ looks a little like this:

  • Nightwear (1 PJ set, 2 nighties) – preferably with buttons for breast feeding and a wide/elastic waistband for comfort
  • 5 pairs of ‘Bridget Jones pants’ – yes those big comfy ones that come up to your armpits
  • A million maxi pads – because we all know that these will be an absolutely necessity
  • Pack of face wipes & some moisturiser – just to try and feel a tad normal
  • 3 – 4 Nursing bras – for maximum ease when feeding the little one
  • ‘Mothers Balm’ by Neal’s Yard – I was brought this as a gift and absolutely swear by it 
  • Camera – As a photographer, this an absolute must no matter how awful I may look/feel

The quantities of the above are based on not knowing how long I’ll be in hospital so covers a maximum stay of 3-4 days. I still need to do things like toothbrush, paste, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc. but my SO is going to take care of chargers, phones and a call list because there’s less things for me to think (and forget) about.
I do still have a little way to go yet with just under 10 weeks left so I feel I’m running out of time to somehow find the strength and organise the rest of my life properly especially with my maternity leave creeping up on me at just 25 days to go! For now, I think I’ll stick to being content my bag is pretty much almost packed and pray that if I have forgotten something, that eventually I will somehow remember – even with my gooey baby-controlled mind!

img_0244

(Could not resist this bear hat – Hoping this will be his first outfit post-birth!)

Hope you’re all enjoying being back at work and having a Christmas-decoration-free home. (Mine looks so bare now, almost as if it were a little tidier!)

One Curious Mother x

Stock List: 
Striped Sleepsuit – Mothercare
Spaceship Sleepsuit – Cath Kidston
Red Dribble Bib – Zippy
White Sleeveless Baby Grow – Asda
Grey Bear Hat – H&M
Grey Star Swaddle – Swaddle Me

 

by One Curious Mother

To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate

Happy New Year! 

To start off 2017, as the weather has taken a turn for the freezing, I thought I’d start by discussing an all important topic – Vaccinations. Although a heavy subject, it is one that is regularly discussed in relation to pregnancy.

‘Vaccines’, ‘Jabs’, ‘Shots’ or ‘Injections’ – Whatever you call them, throughout your life you will more than likely have to make decisions on whether to have them or not. For the first part of your life this decision lies with your parents as you’re just a little too young to understand the medical advantages or disadvantages of them. As someone who is not a fan of being ill, I have always had vaccines that are recommended to me and this has been no different during my pregnancy. So far, I have made the decision to have the flu jab and a few weeks ago I had my Whooping Cough, Polio, Tetanus and Diphtheria vaccines. Over the years this subject has surfaced in both national news as well as all over social media attracting some rather divided opinions. Some parents arguing it causes long term health damage and others arguing that the disease the vaccination is created to prevent is far worse than any side effect. The biggest cases claim that vaccinations can cause autism – this is a serious subject and one that could easily sway a decision. With so much advice, let’s have a look at some discussions, including my own personal reasons for and against vaccinating your children.

Whilst looking for some online discussions, I came across ‘www.vaccines.procon.org'(1) an American website that set out a table for the pros and cons of vaccinations. Clearly marking out each side of the argument, the pros list contained points about ‘vaccines can save children’s lives’, ‘vaccines protect future generations’ and ‘vaccines eradicated smallpox and have nearly eradicated other diseases such as polio’ – a very strong set of arguments in my eyes. Whereas on the other hand, the cons list argues that ‘vaccines can cause serious and sometimes fatal side effects’, ‘vaccines are unnatural, and natural immunity is more effective than vaccination’ as well as ‘diseases that vaccines target have essentially disappeared’. As someone who had a family member die from a disease that we now vaccinate worldwide I can honestly say the stories from their battle was enough to make my decision very clear. In the 1950’s there were 45,000 cases of Polio in the UK (2) and my Great Uncle John was one of them.

In 1955, John contracted Polio aged just 7. Contracted in a local swimming pool, John’s illness was originally confused for pneumonia. He spent years in and out of several hospitals such as Royal Gwent in Newport from the age of 7 to 14 and St Laurence Hospital in Chepstow where he spent 4 of his years. During this, for a time my Papy and Great Auntie Lesley weren’t allowed to go to school as no-one was sure whether Polio was contagious. He was moved out of public school and attended a special school where he passed a handful of ‘O-levels’ and was even Head Boy! As this was during a time where the Polio vaccination was not an available option, John’s illness was tragically unavoidable and painful for this family and friends around him. John spent most of his years in a wheelchair after becoming paralysed from the neck down and for a time had to breathe with the aid of the iconic ‘Iron Lung’. For John, Polio led to developing epilepsy which eventually lead to his death at just 25 years old.

It’s no surprise that losing a sibling has affected my Papa all his life and he never fails to talk ever so fondly of John before his illness with the everlasting reminder to ‘be patient when people are unwell’. John would have been 70 this year and despite my Papy having an enormous understanding, patience and awareness of illness, it all came at a heartbreaking price. With this in always in mind, my Mother has chosen to channel all her energy outside of work to volunteering with Rotary, who regularly raise money to help fund Polio drops in the fight to eradicate the disease worldwide.

Aside from the personal reasons for vaccinating, as a mother-to-be, I often stop to think about life beyond the world of my unborn child. Illness is something that can be easily spreadable by accident, especially among those who haven’t been vaccinated. Now I know there is a chance that it never happens to my child, that they might never encounter anyone who has these any of these illnesses but what happens if my child contracts one of those diseases? What care is available to them? Is that illness even treatable? The questions that fill my mind are endless. Vaccinated or not, you are still at risk of picking up the infection or disease but that vaccination could be the difference between life and death. This has been a very tough subject to talk about and not a light-hearted one at all but has become something I have come to feel very strongly about and will always be a topic that will be related to pregnancy.

To leave on a positive here are some sentimental photograph of my Papa and Great Uncle growing up.

papy-john

I know today has been a little more of a serious subject than normal but thank you for sticking with me.

One Curious Mother x

 

Bibliography/Website links:

  1. http://vaccines.procon.org/
  2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/east/series1/post-polio-syndrome.shtml