Suffolk woman working with East Anglia's Children's Hospices to raise awareness about Strep B
Natalie Smith's daughter Quinn died at just 5 weeks old from the bacterial infection
Last updated 16th Oct 2023
A woman from Suffolk working with East Anglia's Children's Hospices is campaigning for more awareness about Strep B- after losing her daughter in February
Natalie Smith's Quinn died at just 5 weeks old from the bacterial infection- and is sharing her story with us, as baby loss awareness week comes to an end
What is Strep B?
According to the NHS website "Group B strep is a type of bacteria called streptococcal bacteria" that is common in both men and women, it is "normally harmless and most people don't realise they have it."
And it is not routinely tested for, but can cause serious problems for babies, although it is very rare for it to be passed on from mother to baby during labour.
Occasionally, symptoms of a group B strep infection can develop up to 3 months after birth.
The NHS website says to look out for these symptoms.
- Being floppy or unresponsive
- Grunting when breathing, or working hard to breathe when you look at their chest or stomach
- Very fast or slow breathing
- An unusually high or low temperature
- Changes in their skin colour or blotchy skin
- Not feeding well or vomiting milk up
- An unusually fast or slow heart rate
If these symptoms appear they may need treatment with antibiotics in hospital immediately.
Natalie's Story
Natalie told us that Quinn was born in December this year, perfectly healthy but around 4-5 weeks later, her breathing "had gone funny" and she had a temperature.
At this point, they took her to West Suffolk Hospital, where it was confirmed Quinn had an infection.
In a very short space of time, she got significantly worse and they were transferred by the PaNDA team Paediatric and Neonatal Decision Support and Retrieval Service which work out of Addenbrookes, from West Suffolk Hospital to Great Ormond Street Hospital
Natalie told us that after a few hours of being there the Cardiac Intensive Care had figured out the infection had spread to Quinn's heart, which caused more complications.
Here they identified the infection as Group B Strep.
They were in the hospital for 5 weeks, Natalie told us Quinn "kept fighting and fighting, going against everything that they kept saying that she was going to do, but in the end, she just got a lot worse.
"Her little body just couldn't keep up anymore, then she passed away in February."
The pain of Quinn's death was exacerbated as Natalie and her husband James struggled to conceive. Their little boy Cooper (only a year older than Quinn) was born through IVF so they didn't think they could have any more children.
"When we found out we were, well, completely over the moon, our whole family was...we were completely overjoyed. And then when we found out that she was a girl, we thought, oh, this is incredible."
Natalie explained to us that she feels the pain she and James went through to have Cooper has "built up an incredible resilience and gratefulness in" her.
"From the moment we thought something was going to happen to Quinn, I was adamant that this wasn't going to ruin our lives and that we were going to take positive things from her life and do something positive with this new life that we are now in and not let her memory be a sad one.
"We want to celebrate her life and we want to do positive things because of her life. And I've really tried to kind of maintain that mindset."
Natalie has organised a candlelit walk to remember ‘all the babies lost too soon’.
The ‘Wave of Light Walk’ is open to all parents and family members who have experienced something similar and will get underway at 7 p.m. on Sunday (15th October) at Clare Country Park.