Hello I haven’t written for a long time, but there has been a lot going on in the campaign to raise awareness of and advocate testing for GBS. Following delivery of this petition to the Department of Health in January, I have been in correspondence with the Department and still hope to secure a meeting with the Secretary of State or Minister for Health to discuss it. I will let you know if and when that happens. On a related front, you may have heard in the news that updated guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on group B Strep has been published. This is a major step forward in our campaign and we hope and believe it will make a huge difference to helping to save babies like Edward from the horrors of GBS. There are several new recommendations in the updated guidance, and the ones which I think will make the most difference and help to achieve the aims of this petition are: 1. all pregnant women to be provided with an information leaflet about group B Strep 2. all women in preterm labour to be offered intravenous antibiotics, and 3. all women who carried GBS in a previous pregnancy where her baby did not develop GBS infection should be offered the option of either intravenous antibiotics in a subsequent labours or ECM testing late in another pregnancy with offer of the intravenous antibiotics in labour if positive. Having never even heard of GBS until I was told that my new baby was in intensive care fighting for his life, I was so angry and have never understood how it was regarded as acceptable for the NHS to not inform expectant mums about this lethal disease. Pregnant women being properly informed about GBS, including what options are open to them, will make a huge difference. Mums will be able to make informed choices about their care, which is fabulous. The wonderful GBSS charity (www.gbss.org.uk) is working with the RCOG to create a joint patient information leaflet, and expect this to be available by the end of the year. Offering antibiotics to women in preterm labour will help protect preterm babies, who are more vulnerable to all kinds of things, including GBS infection, than their full-term counterparts and who suffer disproportionately as a result. And, recommending that women who previously carried GBS should be offered either routine antibiotics OR a proper test will mean that NHS trusts will make the ECM test available (which at the moment, is rarely done). Now that the guidance is to be made available, it is critical to ensure that it reaches as many people as possible. You can help with this by asking your MP to ask the maternity units in their constituency to review their GBS guidelines in the light of the new RCOG guidelines and to stock/give out the new leaflets as soon as they are available. Please share and help to raise continued awareness – we need every pregnant woman to be fully aware of GBS and we will continue the campaign for a GBS-specific test to be offered to every pregnant woman on the NHS. Thank you so much for your continued support. Fiona