National charity Group B Strep Support has produced a new free eLearning module on group B Streptococcus (GBS), to be used as a vital resource for midwives, doctors and health professionals in maternity services. It offers vital evidence-based education on GBS to enhance the care of pregnant women and people, and their babies, and ultimately will help save lives.
The module will help hospitals with maternity services meet the requirement of the 2023 Core Competency Framework v2 to provide training on GBS in labour to their staff, and successful completion provides one hour of CPD credit. This module will: i) provide an overview of GBS including the latest guidelines and research; ii) cover the prevention, identification and treatment of GBS; and iii) help midwives and doctors answer the common questions expectant parents and families ask about GBS.
This comes as the charity releases new data from a UK-wide survey of over 1000 new and expectant mums, for GBS Awareness Month. The survey found:
- nine-in-ten believe testing for group B Streptococcus should be made routinely available on the NHS
- over eight-in-ten said they’d want to be tested for GBS on the NHS, but of those, seven-in-ten said they weren't aware or hadn't been told about the option of private testing
- GBS is the leading cause of life-threatening infection in newborns, but most expectant parents are only able to access testing privately
- leading charity Group B Strep Support calls for improved reporting and greater prioritisation of the infection.