After reading Wren’s story on the 1st anniversary of his birth and death, people have been wondering what they might do to spread the word that garlic for Group B Strep (GBS, the leading infectious cause of neonatal death) is ineffective and indeed has NEVER been tested. For my part, I’ve assembled a GBS Hall of Shame: homebirth midwives and advocacy organizations who blithely risk the deaths of babies to promote a bogus “treatment.”
The following homebirth midwives actively promote the GBS-garlic quackery. And if you cannot trust them to tell (or even to know) the truth on something so utterly basic as the fact that no one has even looked to find out whether garlic prevents the transmission and development of GBS, you probably cannot trust them to know the truth about a lot of other aspects of childbirth.
Barbara Herrera of Navelgazing Midwife
Rixa Freeze of Stand and Deliver
Dr. Momma at Peaceful Parenting
These are just the most influential members of the GBS Hall of Shame. There are countless other homebirth midwives, doulas and childbirth educators who also counsel garlic for GBS. And of course, everyone refers back to the blithering of Judy Slome Cohain.
These members of the GBS Hall of Shame have put the lives of countless babies at risk for no better reason that to defy medical authority. They have recommended a “treatment” that is not only unproven, it has never even been tested. They have routinely and deliberately misinformed women about the dangers of Group B Strep, and the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment.
To these women I say: You should be ashamed of yourselves and you should IMMEDIATELY alter you websites to reflect accurate scientific information.
I wonder, do you have any words in defense of your reprehensible behavior?
With my first baby I was diagnosed GBS +. I was a dutiful patient, induced at 41 weeks, received the full recommended dose of antibiotics, waters broken for less than 8 hrs before birth, limited vaginal checks…. and guess who’s baby was positively diagnosed with Group B and spent 2 weeks in the NICU? Oh yah that would be my baby. Even the OB and modern medicine “gods” are not always right. Antibiotics don’t always work. We can follow all of the protocol and still get the very thing we are working to prevent. Stop acting like your ways are infallible and everything you touch turns to gold. Sometimes the things you touch turn to extremely sick newborns, moms riddled with yeast, and plagued by intraductal thrush. I’m sure your gutteral instinct is “but hey you’re alive so all’s well that ends well”. Shhh don’t tell, birth doesn’t have to suck, and there are actually people who look forward to it. Just not anyone with a Dr like you.
You would have preferred to have a GBS+ baby at home and watched him/her die of sepsis instead? Well, okay then.
Do you think your child would not have had GBS at home? I’m not so sure it works like that.
Im sorry to hear your baby got so sick. It sucks that he or she got GBS despite the antibiotics. You are right. Sometimes even with our best efforts bad things still happen. But that doesnt mean that you run home and yell *NAANANAANA BOO BOO* at the medical establishment. That is the equivalent of saying “Man, my house caught on fire even though all the logs were in the fireplace. Fuck it! Next time I am just building the fire on the kitchen floor. At least my family can be warm when eat dinner!” As you watch your house burn down around your ears. Your baby could have died if you had been at home the whole time. Your child could have been so sick by the time you realized he or she needed help that that help could have come to late.
Yup, medical care is not perfect. Do you have a better alternative?