Blakely's Story   — Jessica Driscoll, MN, USA

I had a scheduled c-section with Blakely due to her being breech. I ended up going into labor a day before the planned c-section. She was looking great on the monitors but once she was delivered she was having breathing difficulty. She was in respiratory failure. The NICU team worked on her in the operating room but she was not improving. Her heart rate was extremely high. They rushed her to the NICU. She was then put on life support due to respiratory failure, was sedated, and hooked up to what seemed like everything possible. She needed a PICC line and a feeding tube. It’s heartbreaking seeing your brand new baby this way. They did blood a blood culture and it came back positive for Group B Strep. She was septic and had a pneumonia as well. We wondered how this could have happened- we are thinking I may have had a slow leak for a couple days before having her, giving the bacteria time to infect her. Her nurses and doctors were very concerned for her. We didn’t know what was going to happen. They later did a lumbar puncture. Thankfully she was put on antibiotics within the hour of her birth so meningitis came back negative. We didn’t get to hold her for her first 4 days of her life. She was so, so sick but on day 3 things finally took a turn and we started getting some good news and she slowly improved each day. We spent 15 days in the NICU. It was a traumatic experience that no one should ever have to go through. We are so grateful for our NICU team, they were truly amazing. If it wasn’t for them acting so quickly we definitely would have had a different outcome. Blakely is now a healthy 1 year old. She has been a little pokey at meeting milestones but is working with early intervention and is doing great. She is our little miracle. I just wish we were more educated at the time. We did not know the severity of group b strep or what it really was. I just want every pregnant mom to be aware of what group b strep is and how harmful it can be to a baby.