General Chat

...yes, it really could mean as much.

(Hope this is appropriate board on which to post this - please move if necessary)

None of us would be researching our history if we hadn't been born and lived in the first place!

I've been a member of Genes for a number of years now and also a supporter of the charity Group B Strep Support. I would like to share the following with you, in the hope that some of you may like to support their petition:

"GBS Petition to the Prime Minister

In conjunction with Group B Strep Support
( www.gbss.org.uk ), Pregnancy & birth magazine is petitioning 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. If you would like to sign this petition, please visit

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/groupbstrep/

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 screening is not currently available in the UK but GBSS believes it should be – which is why we’ll be presenting the Prime Minister with the petition.

Please do ask your friends and family also to sign the petition – the more names on there, the more powerful the message it sends to the Prime Minister.

And, if you’d like to ask your MP to support this campaign, that would be fantastic"

Thanks, in hope, to anyone who feels they can help.

on my way

thank you for letting us know about this great cause

lynn x

done

and passed to on friends ect

lynn x

Great stuff- thanks from me and hopefully the many babies who could be potentially helped and perhaps even become Genes users of the future.

on my way 2 Thank's
Tack care

a little nudged

because its a for a geat reason

lynn x

n

have signed
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Signed and passed it on to others too.

xx

Have signed, have a friend who this was an issue for, because she was living in another country she got the appropriate care, so everything was fine. I hadn't even heard of it til she told me and I have had 3 children, the youngest is just 5.

I've signed

And me:o)

Great stuff, folks.

Helen S - yes, many European countries and America test and treat as part of their routine ante-natal care. And yes, despite great efforts by many in the UK to raise awareness, a large number of mums (even those who test positive during pregnancy!) don't get the information they should.

It is not something that is so rare as to not bother. You only need to read the GBSS website (www.gbss.org.uk) or their newsletters, to see just how many families have either lost a baby to Group B Strep or are living with children who will require ongoing special care throughout their lives. It is happening here and now, in this new Century, yet potentially many, if not all, of the deaths/illness could be avoided by the UK testing routinely - there are other routine tests in pregnancy that cannot have such spectacular potential outcomes as saving a life, yet they are done.

bump for those online this afternoon

It would be great if anyone else felt they wanted to sign the petition.

Thanks, in hope.

Great to see the signature numbers are rising at the petition website - thanks to any folks from Genes who have signed, very much appreciated.

Still time to add your signature if you feel you want to.

All Done

And passed on to family and friends

Jan x

Good job done there, signed it .

Good luck with it.

Deanna X

Great stuff - thanks!

Hope folks don't mind another bump for this thread.