Franklin Andrew Rumsey's Story   — Trish Rumsey

Trish's doctors believe that GBS caused her membranes to rupture in her 27th week of pregnancy. Franklin lived only seven short hours due to being exposed to a secondary infection...

Kami's Story   — Kami's Mother

Our gift from God. Today, she is the most beautiful, loving, intelligent five year old. And most of all she is a miracle for us. I look back at those days and know that I would have never made it had I not turned my fears over to the Lord...

Zachary's Story   — Kim

His lungs failed, then his heart and then his kidneys. It was three days before the doctors told us they thought he would survive...

Beth's Twin Girls   — beth orourke, NY, USA

On Dec 19, 1997, I gave birth to twin girls at 27 weeks of pregnancy. The doctors said that since my membranes had a leak and it looked as if I had Strep B that I would have to deliver.

Devin's story   — cheri allen, NC, USA

My membranes had ruptured, but I was not in labor. The hospital waited until the next morning to call my OBGYN, and then started my labor...

Gunnar's Story   — melanie jackson, KY, USA

...I knew something was wrong. I told the nurse that the baby would not stop grunting. She told me that "babies make noises" and I would have to get used to that.

Devin's Story   — cheri allen, NC, USA

My 'water' broke, but I wasn't in labor. More than 24 hours later, labor was induced. Devin developed Strep B meningitis...

Maxine's Baby's Story   — maxine wood, barnsley/south yorkshire, united kingdom

Not long after having the drip set up my baby was so distressed that they rushed me to theatre to have an emergency c-section.

Beatriz' Baby's Story   — Beatriz Martinez, CO, USA

I started noticing an unusual discharge on week 16th and went to the doctor. They did a sonogram, blood test, etc. and EVERYTHING was negative. They sent me home. Again, the discharge kept getting worse and again I went to the doctor and the SAME THING. Less than 48 hours after seeing the doctor for the last time, I was having a miscarriage.

Ntombenhle's Daughter's Story   — Ntombenhle Msomi, GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA

Had to go to the ward without my daughter, but thought it was procedure. When I demanded to know about my daughter, nobody had the right answer for me...until the next day.

Hayley's Story   — Brandyn Beuchert, NC, USA

It turned out she had GBS in her blood. I had tested negative for it 2 weeks earlier...

Laura' Son's Story   — laura checketts, great britain, Wales

...but he was born too early...

Bennet Neil's Story   — Jennifer V.

I was only 34.6 weeks along, but I had been having preterm labor for 5 weeks. At 7:30 PM Bennett Neil was born. The nurse handed me my beautiful baby boy, but after about 30 seconds, he was taken from me and given oxygen...

Little Billy's Story   — Michelle

My mommy had an infection that they call Group B Strep which caused her to go into premature labor...

Shannon Leighanna's Story   — Staci Leighanna, Jacksonville, FL, USA

Basically, my baby was coming that day at 26 weeks...

Lisa's son   — Lisa Postel, IA, USA

That is when I was told that overnight they got the blood work back and in 8 short hours he had to undergo a spinal tap to be certain that the infection hadn't spread into his brain. I guess ignorance is bliss as I still didn't know what Group B strep was or how dangerous it could be...

Jessica's baby   — JESSICA DAVIS, AZ, USA

I tested positive for GBS this time also, except this time they tested twice and the second test was negative, so I was not treated with antibiotics.

Carissa's Story   — Bobby

Since her GBS test was positive, she had been on oral antibiotics for a week and her 1 lb, 12 oz. daughter...

Benjamin's Story   — Sharon Chapman, FL, USA

After two years of trying to conceive, we were blessed with our sweet Benjamin. Unfortunately, GBS claimed him at just 22 weeks gestation..

Amira's Story   — Amira's Mommy (the Cohrt Family)

She died of a Group B Strep infection about half an hour before she was born...

Caitlyn's Story   — Brian and Catherine MacIntosh

I heard the words, "Sweetie, your baby died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital"...

Hannah Noelle's Story   — Hannah's Mother

I was 41 weeks pregnant when the doctor decided to do an internal exam and then proceeded to strip my membranes without my permission...

Kirsten's Story   — Selita

Autopsy results concluded that Kirsten died of a Group B Strep infection 2-3 days prior to my giving birth...

Rose's Story   — Marti

My heart aches every day for the daughter that I have lost while my OB's still tell me that they don't know how GBS could have crossed my placenta even though medical literature clearly states that it can...

Mercedez' Story   — Delayne Kirikiri, non us, New zealand

I showed signs of strep b with a high temperature, but that didn't concern the midwife....

Kim's baby   — Kim Milliner, ON, Canada

...we were finally given the diagnosis that I had an infection called chorioamnionitis. This week while talking to my MD, he told me that this infection is almost always caused by Group B strep.

Aaliyah Dolores Ramirez's story   — Shelyn Williams, NV, USA

I will never forget the day I gave birth to my daughter--August 18, 2006. The day before I started to have chills.

C.J.'s story   — Tracey Meskers, WI, USA

My son C.J. was stillborn on his due date, November 4, 2006. I believe it was due to a false negative GBS test (the doctor wasn't sure how to do it and kept referring to the nurse).

Abby's First Month   — Abby's Mommy

Abby was born at 6:13 pm and for the first couple of hours, all seemed well. After ¹/₂ hour or so it became apparent to the nurses in the nursery that Abby was in some respiratory distress...

Chloe's story   — Patricia

An hour later she stopped that funny noise, good....but I felt something was wrong...

Emmie's story   — Pam , Philadelphia, PA, USA

Emmie was placed on a respirator at 11 minutes of age. The doctors and nurses tried their best to explain to us all that was going on with Emmie. The pneumonia, the sepsis, the low blood pressure and of course the respiratory failure...

Garrin's story   — Marla , OK, USA

My son was born with Strep B and almost died— they only gave him a 10% chance to live. My Doctor never tested me or even gave me an option to do so...

Jason's baby   — Jason Edwards, OK, USA

My wife asked 3 different times to be hooked up to the IV and receive the medication for the strep B. The doctor came in and broke my wife's water at 10:30 pm, and we were still not hooked up with the IV.

Georgia Leigh's story   — Shannon Wilson

GBS-meningitis, pneumonia and liver problems. The infection destroyed all of her brain with the exception of her brain stem, which only keeps her alive...

Grace Leanne's story   — Nancy

In our lives for such a short time, but you will be with us forever.....We love you and miss you!!!

Noah\'s story   — Melissa Barrett

Noah was born that afternoon, he was perfect! But never did we imagine that we would not bring him home...

Katy's story   — Marlo Matz

About 2 ¹/₂ weeks before Katy was due, I started feeling crummy...

Khanyi's story   — Khanyi's Mom

Over the next few hours and into the night I noticed baby was breathing strangely and could not suck at all...

Allison's story -- born with GBS!   — Allison Collins, KS, USA

I was born in with Beta Strep but I just now found out how serious of a problem it is....

Austin's story   — rashe wright, KY, USA

...the doctors found out that our child was infected with GBS bacterial meningitis. My GBS test at 36 weeks was not properly done as the right areas were not swabbed!

Larry's story   — NORA VIDAL, VA, USA

I gave birth to a cute little 5lb, 3oz baby boy named Larry, and everything was going ok. When I noticed that his breathing was not right, I told the nurse and she told me that he was a newborn and that it was normal for babies to breathe like that

Early-onset story   — anonymous

I had a doctor tell me that my son had a 30 percent chance of survival--not good at all...

Kobe's Story   — deedee mendoza, TX, USA

He was beautiful and seemed to be healthy, but then the next day, when we were released, he started having seizures.

Riley Shane' Story   — Diana Chenoweth, MI, USA

Nicole also had a fairly normal delivery, was tested for GBS, and, as many others, was told in no uncertain terms, "nothing to worry about, no big deal."

Mandi's Son   — MANDI TOLMAN, UT, USA

I was told that I was negative for Group B. A week later I woke up and felt that I was leaking fluid.

Liam Terrance's story   — Erik van Woudenberg, Utrecht, Netherlands

On November 9, 2004, Liam Terrance was born. He was the most beautiful baby boy in the world. He was grunting a little, but the doctor told us he might have a bit of a headache caused by the delivery.

Liz's Baby   — Liz Anonymous, CA, USA

My son was born about five hours later and was very ill with pneumonia from the GBS...At about 2 years old we began to notice he had visions problems.

Clair's story   — Shawn & Rachael Hunsaker

Our unexpected nightmare started the minute our beautiful Clair was born... I knew that I was GBS positive, but was reassured that it was no big deal....

Hayden's story   — anonymous

I have never been so terrified in my life. When they told me what he had and the fatality rate, I couldn't believe I didn't know more about this...

Paul Philip's story   — Glenn and Rachel Sprague, AZ, USA

“Group B Strep is a vicious organism.” Those words will forever echo in my head. I was sitting at the bedside of my newborn baby boy, Paul Philip, as he struggled for life.

Gill's baby   — Gill Hurt, North Lincolnshire, United Kingdom

My daughter was born on the 11th of November 1999 and was rushed straightaway to the newborn intensive care unit at our local hospital.

Matthew's Story   — Cindy Raymond, ME, USA

...I would be given antibiotics before delivering my son in 1994. I felt reassured that the baby would be fine. HOWEVER, during my delivery, my i.v. infiltrated...

Valerie's Baby   — Valerie House, TX, USA

We believe that he was exposed to GBS because my water was broken so early and he was exposed to my birth canal while we waited for him to drop.

Joshua's Story   — Karen & Craig McTaggart, BC, Canada

We would have never guessed as he looked so perfect...

Lauren Marie's Story   — Megan Mills, MD, USA

I had two Urinary Tract Infections while I was pregnant with Lauren. My OB/GYN told me there was nothing to worry about that they will just treat me as positive for Group B Strep.

David Austin's story   — SHELLEY CURRENCE, WV, USA

I told the doctors about all the signs he had and they all ignored me like I didn't know what I was talking about...

Isaiah's story   — Maribel Torres, IL, USA

At my 36 week check up the results were in....negative!

Tristan's Story   — karen barnette, VA, USA

...on the 6th day I noticed he didn't awake for his feeding and he was making a grunting noise.

Brodie Thomas' Story   — michelle plazina, vic, australia

On the 23rd of May the doc at the hospital gave us the all clear even though Brodie didn't pass the hearing test. The nurse that was to come to the house on Wednesday the 24th would do it. That never ever happened.

Talen's Story   — Valerie Davis, MD, USA

Apparently I was supposed to have received the antibiotics 4 hours before delivery...

Cameron Andrew Jewell's Story   — Casey Jewell, KS, USA

I got to the hospital and they asked if I had my GBS culture results because they couldn't find it in my file. I was very unsure and told them to call my doctor. It was 3 o'clock in the morning so the information at the doctor's office was unavailable. I was negative with my first pregnancy so I was not treated with antibiotics even though they couldn't confirm my results...

Kyla's Story   — Heather Finlay, Victoria, BC, Canada

I was 8cm dilated and just barely made it to the hospital. Needless to say I did not receive any antibiotics. When we asked her about the Strep B, she told us not to worry about it.

Josh's Story   — Debra Ryan, OR, USA

He was born almost 10 lbs, and it was hard to believe by looking at him that there was anything wrong...

Brenda's Son's Story   — brenda gabrielli, NJ, USA

My son is now 25 years old and he was born with GBS meningitis....he went undiagnosed for more than 12 hours...

David's story   — Amy Gault, IN, USA

My baby died 30 hours after his birth due to overwhelming sepsis caused by GBS...

Korinne's Baby   — Korinne Vander, MI, USA

My parents were told my chances were and I quote, .... " We are seven down in the first." To most baseball fans that means I had no chance for survival.

Jayden Anthony's Story   — Kate Collins, MA, USA

The next morning three hours passed and he didn't nurse. That was unusual for him. Then four, then five hours passed... I knew something was wrong. I could feel it.

Hayden's Story   — Crystal Polivick, KY, USA

My son Hayden was born at 36 weeks taken early for my health reasons. Immediately after birth he had trouble breathing...

Brian Joseph's story   — Maria and Ray

Brian Joseph fell victim to late onset GBS on August 29, 1998, 25 days after his birth. He suffered a seizure right in front of my husband and me....

Cheyenne   — Kim

On Thursday, Dr. C explained to my large loving family and friends about my fatal illness. He explained Moma and Daddy's decision to take me off this terrible respirator, and get these needles out of my body...

Ivy Hope's Story   — Hope's Mother

When she woke she wouldn't eat, and started grunting...

Taya Alexis Boyd's Story   — Kimberly Boyd

My test results came back positive and my doctor said it was no big deal...

Charlie's story   — Jana Anthoine, GA, USA

Our son Charlie was born on May 21, 2003 and was healthy even though he was 4 weeks early. On Tuesday, June 10, he became very fussy and inconsolably crying....

Carlos' story   — Arnesia Edwards, TN, USA

I was told that I had Group B strep, but I had nothing to worry about because I was having a C-section...

Nicholas' Story   — Patrick Gray, OH, USA

On May 1st he started having problems with his heart rate...

Syliva's Story   — Susan Mercy, MI, USA

My mom noticed she wasn't nursing well and was fussy so she got her in to the pediatrician.

Mackenzie's Story   — Denise Marrone, NY, USA

On Saturday, October 28th, I felt that Mackenzie was not acting right. She was in a state of semi-consciousness all day, and she seemed fussy. She was not really crying, more like moaning. She would not eat, and this really concerned me...

Zoey and Aiden's story   — anonymous

I was 31 weeks along with identical twin girls and awoke one morning to my membranes rupturing...

JJ's story   — anonymous

My son Javier a.k.a. "JJ" had symptoms, but I wasn't really sure what he had. However, I knew deep in my heart that something was wrong with him...

Kaelin's story   — Rhonda Patton, TN, USA

Kaelin came home on August 3 and by August 16 she was fighting for her life....

Laura's Baby   — LAURA TRIBBLE, AR, USA

My child had Strep B at 5 weeks in 1993.

Sarah's Twin Daughter   — Sarah Pierce, CA, USA

The next day they tell us she has meningitis. Though they don't know what caused it, they do know its bacterial; and an infectious disease doctor says she has never seen so much bacteria in any spinal tap.

Gabrielle's Story   — Sonny Erenstein, MN, USA

When I asked the home nurse and the dr at the first week check up I was told that she is a newborn, "they sleep". I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right.

Hannah's story   — JONI FLOYD, WV, USA

At a little over 3 weeks we thought she had colic as she wouldn't eat much, didn't sleep much, and cried a lot. When she was 4 weeks old, her daddy was holding her and her eyes crossed almost inside her head...

Najae's Story   — anonymous

I noticed she wasn't eating and kept sleeping alot and when I would go to pick her up to make sure she was ok she would let out a horrific scream...

Erin's Story   — Tracy Stevens, PA, USA

Crying was something Erin did not do alot so to us it was odd. She cried for about 1/2 hour; then went back to sleep. She then awoke again but was making kind of a groaning sound...

GBS Meningitis at 7 Months   — anonymous

When my daughter developed GBS bacterial meningitis at the age of 7 months, they told me she probably wouldn't make it...

Sawyer's Story   — Christopher and Dorothy Miano, KY, USA

We lost Xavier Sawyer Miano (Sawyer), "Mommy's Pigletpoo" and "Daddy's Pardner", to late-onset group B streptococcal meningitis, general sepsis, and hydrocephaly on October 11, 2005. Our son was the answer to years of prayer...

Hudson's Story   — Jennifer Flowers, GA, USA

Hudson passed away at 6 weeks old due to late onset GBS...It all just happened so fast.

Emily's Story   — Jennifer Brown, CA, USA

I lost my five month old daughter Emily on September 3, 2005 to the ravaging effects of Group B Strep. The pain of losing a child seems unbearable at times...

Bentley's story   — Crystal Kent, CO, USA

My daughter Bentley was diagnosed with Group B Strep Meningitis at 10 ½ weeks even though I tested negative during my pregnancy and had a C-section...

Allison's Son's Story   — Allison Gentz, CA, USA

My son was born a healthy 9 lbs. baby, one week late. At 18 days old he became very sick...

Campbell's Story   — Hayley Voll, Western Australia, Perth Western Australia

...after receiving the autopsy results we were informed that he had died from an overwhelming GBS infection. Obviously we were stunned as I was tested prior to delivery and was negative.

Mia-Lucy's Story   — toni turner, west sussex, england

I had never heard of this infection until this happend to me.

Jake's Story   — Jo Ann Timmons, GA, USA

My son Jake was born on July 19, 1995 by a C-section and had late-onset GBS TWICE, once at 3 weeks and again at 9 weeks. I tested NEGATIVE for GBS and he was delivered by c section

Allie's Story   — Misty Dennis, Canadian, TX, USA

At about 12:30 I told my husband, "Something is wrong with this baby," and when he asked, "Why do you think that?" I told him that she wouldn't latch on!!

Jersey Mai's Story   — kerry bryan, AL, USA

I noticed she wasn't breathing right (grunting), and not feeding right. Still I took my baby home but still couldn't get this feeling that something wasn't right out of my head--a mothers instinct.

Noah's story   — Angela Evertz, NJ, USA

...he awoke screaming and crying as though he was in pain...

Owen's Story   — Rebecca Nickel, NJ, USA

Owen didn't show any symptoms of GBS until his 4th week in the NICU. Immediately upon coming to see him that day, I noticed he looked strange...

Will's story   — Kate McMaster, AL, USA

I knew nothing of GBS at the time - was given antibiotics, but of course that doesn't prevent late-onset.

Kyle's Story   — Robert & Tonya Williams, FL, USA

Kyle's story is one even a new pediatrician in our group did not believe...

My Baby's Story   — Dee Elel, VA, USA

After days of crying and worrying, I decided that when the baby comes, to cherish every cry, every sleepless night and any other hardship that came my way as it could be just a matter of time....

Andrew's Story   — Grace Trujillo, sacramento, CA, USA

I was never tested for Group B Strep during my 35th-37th week of pregnancy. Possibly a combination of Group B Strep (Sepsis) and jaundice turned into hyperbilirubinemia (kernikterus) to cause my son's disabilities.