After nine years of primary
infertility, my wife became pregnant
from our third IVF. At our Level II u/s
at 15w5d, two soft markers for Down
Syndrome were found and we were advised
to have an amniocentesis. We initially
declined but gave in after nine days.
The amnio initially went well, with no
bleeding, cramps, or leaks. Thirty-six
hours later, at 17w2d, my wife awoke to
a major fluid loss. An ultrasound
confirmed the leak and there was
absolutely no fluid left around our
baby. Her amniotic sac had separated
from her chorionic sac (complete chorio-
amniotic separation). Just before
leaving the office with the grim news,
we were told the results of the FISH
test: no Trisomies found - a normal
baby girl.
My wife went on bedrest at home and
drank water constantly. She had several
smaller leaks in the weeks that
followed. By 19w a small amount of
fluid had reaccumulated. At 22w there
was no more improvement and things
looked bleak. Our peri thought there
was continuous leaking that my wife
couldn't detect. The good news was that
the two sacs had finally fused
together.
At 26w, the u/s showed a huge increase
in fluid. We were still
oligohydramnios, but nowhere near as
bad as before. Unfortunately, our
baby's growth was lagging behind (2
weeks) and there was a possibility my
wife would be hospitalized at 28w for
IUGR if growth slowed further.
A couple of days before our scheduled
28w u/s, my wife had some brown
spotting. We went in for an u/s that
morning and they found that the low-
lying placenta at 15w5d had become
complete placenta previa. Our peri sort
of laughed in frustration and
said "Wow, now you've covered the
entire chapter on pregnancy
complications". He ordered our first
round of steroid shots and told us to
go to the emergency room if there was
anymore bleeding. We didn't have to
wait long, the next morning my wife
woke up in a pool of bright red blood.
She was hospitalized.
After eight weeks in the hospital and
several more bleeding episodes, our
little girl, Emily Ann, was born by
scheduled c-section on September 30,
1999 at 36w1d. She was only 4lbs 11oz
because of the placenta previa but was
otherwise perfectly healthy. She stayed
in the Transistional Nursery for six
hours before being released to our
room. She came home with my wife two
days later.
We were never offered termination,
probably because of the extreme
difficulty getting pregnant and our age
(I'm 36, my wife is 35). My wife never
took antibiotics and was only given
steroids after the bleeding at 28w and
30w, when delivery looked imminent.
Mike
IVF'ers
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