Mummy Pixie: Sign the petition to help save babies!

You may well have seen this article hitting the headlines in the last couple of days. Carrie and Jonathan Evans (living in Cardiff) were happily expecting their first child together. She'd had a safe and easy pregnancy and all had gone well. Then at full term, her waters broke. 24 hours later, after no sign of the baby, she headed to the University Hospital of Wales to be induced - a further 24 hours later, her baby was born, but sadly she'd passed away just before being born.

As a mother, I can't even comprehend what she is going through and how she must feel. I know there's a pull in my heart and stomach when I think about it.

Their lovely baby girl died because of an infection from bacteria, that made it's way in after her waters broke. You may not know, but after 24 hours have passed after waters breaking, the chance of infection dramatically increases to both the mother and baby - this is why often you'll hear about people being induced as they approach that mark, or even have a c-section.

The reason I'm sharing this article with you, is because it really strikes a chord with me. When I was in labour with Squidge, I was 60 hours between waters breaking and giving birth to him - my chance of infection was massively high by that point. We were lucky, he was born a healthy baby (other than being blue, needing oxygen and suction). But I did have to have 2 weeks of strong antibiotics to help combat any infection I may have picked up - and 2 weeks after giving birth, I did develop an infection.

I passed very, very large clots, had a temperature and felt generally a bit unwell. I was admitted back to hospital for 24 hrs of intravenous antibiotics - something which could potentially have been avoided had they not left me so long with my waters broken. At this point my mother-in-law had submitted a lengthy complaint to the health board about my treatment and how long my waters had been broken for - we had some very boring and political answers back - but after reading this article, I can't help but feel it fell on deaf ears.

The petition is to test all expectant mothers for Group B Streptococcus or GBS, and automatically give antibiotics to high-risk mothers. Stillbirth is more common than cot death, meningitis and Down’s syndrome, so it's not something to be ignored, and GBS affects one in every 2,000 births and one in every 10 babies with the infection will die.

I urge you to sign the petition, to help save the lives of unborn babies, if enough of us sign it, they can't ignore it. The petition needs another 63,000 signatures by Tuesday 10th February - so please share it with friends, family and on any and all social media you have.

Here's a direct link to the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/60515