Trust me guys, you don't want to read this! Now, if you have a wife that is looking for a natural way to ward off beta strep, by all means send her my way. But under no circumstance should any male reader continue with this post. Don't say I didn't warn you if you decide to disregard my warning.
Before I start let me first get all the gibberish formalities out of the way. I am in no way a doctor, nor pretending to be one. I am not giving medical advice. I am only sharing with you what I do in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. Take it for what it's worth :-)
So the end is near! The end of this pregnancy that is. I have racked my brain as to how I wanted to do things this time around as it pertains to beta strep. I've followed the same routine the past few pregnancies, but had a few different thoughts with this one. So I decided to change things up a bit. I am still going with the garlic/ACV/honey concoction and the herbal suppositories. However, instead of starting these the last two weeks of the pregnancy I've decided to start them a bit before the 34th week. You are supposed to take the concoction and do the suppositories for ten days. That will take me to the 35th week. I've decided to start earlier because I realized this time around that the garlic and herbs can not distinguish between the bad guys and the good guys!
So for the remaining 5 weeks or so (I am hoping it will be LESS than 5 weeks) I will be 'injecting' yogurt or kefir into the birth canal. How to do this? I went out and bought the cheap 7 pack of yeast infection medication. Make sure to get the one with the cream. That way you can use the nifty tubes to 'inject' the good bacteria to where it needs to go. Make sure you have a pad on as it doesn't stay in place! But it will coat the walls, and that is what I am aiming for.
On top of that I am going low carb for the remainder of the pregnancy. Sugars don't do a body good! I also plan on upping my probiotics as well.
A word on the garlic/ACV/honey concoction. Last time around I couldn't bring myself to use the whole half cup of raw honey that the recipe called for. So I only used 1/4 of a cup. It was BAD! I mean, I seriously had to psyche myself up to take the nasty stuff. Twice a day....for ten days!! I would DREAD garlic time! Don't just take my word for it, you can ask Jeremiah what his experience was. It went sort of like this: Jeremiah started to come down with something. I told him he should try my garlic stuff as that stuff seriously has to be able to kill anything it comes in contact with. I told him it was "strong". I told him to ONLY take 1 tsp of it. He decided to go for a whole tablespoon instead. Hey, I warned him. Let's just say he just about lost the contents of his stomach upon consuming! Yeah, it's that bad. So this time around I decided to use the whole amount of honey. I also armed myself with some juice to chase it down with. WOW, what a difference that other 1/4 cup of honey does! Don't skimp on the honey is all I have to say. Now I don't dread taking my garlic stuff. Phew!
I believe that I got my concoctions off the internet, but I have them written down with some other herbal remedy ideas from a book I got out of the library. So for now, until I can locate them online I won't post the recipes. I just don't have the energy to look it all up right now. I'll get back to you all as soon as I can on the matter.
As a background, I tested beta strep positive with my first pregnancy. I had the IV antibiotics. With my second pregnancy they told me "once beta strep positive, always beta strep positive". I found out later that what they told me was not true. With my third, well I had her at home, and IV antibiotics are not an option :-) I did for my peace of mind take the test though. It was negative. Same with Saoirse. However, with Jed, I had learned that even though you are negative at 36 weeks, doesn't mean you are at 40. But I did take the test, it was neg. But with each of these home births I did some variation of my garlic remedy/ suppository routine. With Jonah I opted out of the test, and just did the remedies. And so it will be with this baby. Everyone needs to do what they feel is best for their baby.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
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