'NO mother should have to hear this' - here's why one couple is calling for better information during pregnancy after their newborn baby almost died.

Sarah Smith and her fiancée Richard Townsend from Sandhurst nearly lost their newborn baby Joshua to group B Strep sepsis and meningitis after it was unknowingly transmitted to him through birth.

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At just 18 hours old, Joshua stopped breathing and started having seizures.

He was rushed to the neonatal unit at Frimley Park Hospital where his seizures continued and he ended up being heavily sedated and ventilated.

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Joshua was then transferred to Ashford and St Peters Hospital in Chertsey, which had a higher level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Sarah said: "By this point I could barely stand and was cold and shaky so they wouldn’t let me go with Joshua. Group B Strep was mentioned for the first time and bloods and swabs were taken from me. "We were told they suspected Joshua might have it too and he could have caught it from me.

"Richard and I hadn’t slept for 36 hours and we were in such an emotional mess that we couldn’t take in what the doctor was trying to say to us. All I could say was, “please can you tell me if my baby is going to be okay?".

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"He told me he couldn’t answer that and that memory still haunts me now. No mother should have to hear this.”

Two days her baby Joshua was diagnosed with group B Strep sepsis and meningitis, and Sarah with group B Strep sepsis, which is the UK’s most common cause of severe infection in newborn babies, causing sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis.

As such, Sarah and Richard want all other expecting mothers to be properly informed about group B Strep so they can choose if they wish to be tested or not.

The mother claims that before Joshua was born she her midwife about group B Strep, but it was, “brushed aside” and she was told not to worry about it.

Sarah added: “She told me where I could find further information out but because she was so blasé I didn’t think to search any further into it myself.”

Jane Plumb MBE, founder and Chief Executive of charity Group B Strep Support, said: “We’re so sorry to hear about the terrible experience that Sarah, Richard and baby Joshua endured. Most group B Strep infections show in the first 12 hours after birth and typical signs include the baby being floppy and fretful with a high pitched or whimpering cry, or moaning with a blank, staring or trance-like expression and a tense or bulging fontanelle (the soft spot on babies’ heads).