More pregnancy women to get Group B Strep antibiotic treatment - how to protect your microbiome
Todays headline on the BBC news announced that more pregnant women would get Group B Strep treatment in the form of antibiotics
"All pregnant women who go into labour too soon should be given antibiotics to protect their baby from a potentially deadly infection called Group B Strep (GBS), say new guidelines.
...any woman who goes into labour before 37 weeks should be offered antibiotics as a precaution, even if her waters have not broken and the protective amniotic sac surrounding the baby in the womb is still intact. They also say women who have tested positive for GBS in a previous pregnancy can be tested at 35 to 37 weeks in subsequent pregnancies to see if they also need antibiotics in labour.But they [the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG] do not go as far as recommending routine screening of mothers-to-be"
Why is this significant in terms of the microbiome?
Well, there is significant evidence of a major shift in the make up of the microbiome after as little as one course of antibiotics,;
in studies with pregnancy mice antibiotic treatment caused alteration of gut microbiota and immunological changes in the intestine of the offspring [2004]
In pregnant women, it was demonstrated that antibiotic administration during pregnancy leads to alterations in the vaginal microbiome prior to birth, with long-term effects on the early microbial colonization of the newborn [2014]
and an association with childhood obesity [2015].
Now, this piece is not to debate the merits or otherwise of screening for Group Strep B and antibiotic use but it IS to raise the awareness that it WILL have an effect off the microbia that the baby is exposed to as they are born. The balance of bacteria that is passed down to baby during birth and immediately after in skin to skin and breastfeeding feeding has significant implications for a baby's long term health and well being.
So if you need to have antibiotics in pregnancy, you need to work on restoring your health bacteria as soon as possible.
Diet:
try to eat a wide variety of fresh, unprocessed foods, with a particular emphasis on green leafy vegetables, and foods such as onions, garlic, leeks, cauliflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, cabbage and bananas,
Sweet potatoes and other tubers help to rebuild the gut microbiome, providing insoluble fiber that feeds good ,but not harmful bacteria.
Fermented foods such as sauerkraut or miso are also helpful and eating bio-yogurt all contribute to the faster restoration of the gut.
Perhaps consider taking a high quality probiotic supplement.
Going forward in cases of proven maternal infection, we need narrow spectrum antibiotics as the preferred option due to their less extensive effects on the microbiome. While absolutely antibiotics sometimes need to be used, we need to take into account the association of prenatal antibiotics with increased risk of childhood asthma, immunological changes, inflammatory bowl disease and obesity and more when looking at the balance of benefits and risk.