A mother who is a carrier of the group b streptococcus can transfer the bacteria to her child during labor even if the mother does not present any symptoms. Studies have shown that between 15% to 40% of pregnant women are carriers of group b strep. Without intervention, an infant born to a woman who is a carrier of the bacteria has a one in two-hundred possibility of developing a Group B Strep infection. By administering the proper antibiotics during labor the chance that she will pass the group b strep bacteria to her baby is decreased by 2,000%.

To be able to decide which expecting mothers require antibiotics during labor, asymptomatic pregnant women are screened for group b streptococcus between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of the pregnancy. Being tested for group b strep is a simple process. Because the bacteria mostly colonizes inside the urinary and vaginal tract of the expecting mother, a swab is used to acquire a sample. The results of the screen are generally available inside forty-eight hours.

If a newborn develops a Group B Strep infection but is not treated in a timely basis, the infection can develop into pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Due to the fact a baby's immune systems is not wholly developed, the baby may be left with permanent physical and neurological harm that may prevent the child from ever living a normal life. And of the approximately seven thousand six hundred children who are estimated to be infected this year with gorup b strep ten to fifteen percent do not survive.

Given the significant danger a group b streptococcus infection presents for newborns, physicians examining a baby who has signs consistent with a GBS infection and whose mother tested positive during the pregnancy need to incorporate it in their differential diagnosis. See, for instance, a sent to lawsuit in which an infant, born to a woman who had a known history of being a GBS carrier during the pregnancy, started to exhibit signs consistent with a Group B Strep infection shortly after birth. Unfortunately, the pediatrician did not correlate the symptoms in the baby’s postnatal chart with the prenatal chart which showed that the Group B Strep bacteria had been found in the mother during the pregnancy. Hence, the right diagnosis was came late and antibiotics were not used immediately.

Due to the delay, the infant sustained a brain injury. The law firm that helped the family described that the case settled for $3,875,000

Newborns can acquire a GBS infection even tough antibiotics were given to the mother in the course of labor. A recent study also revealed that a certain number of newborns who manifest the infection although the mother screened negative. Physicians thus need to consider it as part of their differential diagnosis whenever a baby exhibits symptoms consistent with group b streptococcus . As this claim illustrates Not reading the prenatal records or considering Group B Strep may amount to liability for medical malpractice.