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Group B Streptococcus In Pregnancy, Lindsay Doyle

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the ‘leading infectious cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality in the United States” (Colicchia, Lauderdale, Du, Adams, & Hirsch, 2015, p. 173). GBS is a bacterium present in the vagina and/or anorectal flora of women and is considered to be normal flora which generally does not cause infection, however, if a pregnant woman is GBS positive and left untreated during birth, the newborn passing through the birth canal is at risk for becoming colonized (Bicheno & Geraghty, 2015, p. 224). Infants exposed to GBS may develop sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis within the first week after …