"Antenatal care and post delivery complication"

I gave birth at Karratha Health Campus and at approximately 5 hours of life my baby became unwell. My baby then continued to decline through the night and ended up being picked up by NETS and RFDS to Perth. We had to spend $600 to get my partner to Perth on the same day. PATS won’t cover this.

We then spent 14 days in the NICU with my baby. On the fourth day we learnt that their diagnosis was Group B Strep sepsis. This was the first I had ever heard of group B strep, and I also learnt that had I been offered a simple swab test at 36 weeks, I believe I could have been put on antibiotics during labour and potentially avoided my baby being incredibly sick and all the stress and issues we’ve experienced as a result.

I had an appointment each week leading up to birth and I recall not one midwife or doctor educated me about group b strep, which I have later found the WACHS policy which I understand says all pregnant women are to be educated about it.

My labour was also induced at 38 weeks so I feel there was plenty of time to be educated about group b strep and also be tested before they broke my waters. In the second week following birth I woke up in so much pain barely able to walk and had to go to a metropolitan hospital where I discovered I had a uterus infection as a result of the group B strep. This infection continued to come back and I ended up on antibiotics for a total of 21 days.

While at the metropolitan hospital I learnt that had I lived in Perth I believe I would have been offered the group b strep test during my pregnancy, which is disappointing to think that, apparently, had I not lived in Karratha I may have had a much better experience in the first 2 weeks of my babies life and we wouldn’t have experienced so much stress and financial hardship as a result.

I want to know why I was never educated about group b strep and given the option to test for it, even if it wouldn’t change the outcome at least we could have been more mentally prepared for what happened. To think my baby could have died makes me furious, especially when so easily prevented or at the very least prepared for.

On top of that the added cost of travel to and from Perth for my partner, along with cost of food and everything we left behind at home for the two weeks we were living in Perth!