At the 12 week scan the consultant
noticed what might have been an
enlarged bladder. I was sent to a
specialist who confirmed this and
advised that the bladder be drained or
back pressure would damage my baby's
kidneys. At 13 weeks a needle was
passed through my abdomen and into the
baby to drain what they now thought
was either a kidney or the bladder.
When I returned to the hospital the
following week it was discovered that
there was no fluid around the baby. I
had an amnioinfusion. Most of the
fluid was lost quite quickly. A week
later I reurned and again there was no
fluid. The conclusion was that my
baby's kidneys were not working and
therefore he (I had karotyping done on
the drained fluid so I knew it was a
boy) would not survive. Even if they
were wrong about his kidneys then his
lungs would not develop to sustain
life, he would die from pulmonary
hypolasia. I had 2 choices, terminate
the pregnancy or continue and let
nature take its course, on the
understanding that the outcome would
undoubtably be very sad.
My husband and I for various reasons
decided to continue. From then on a
fabulous consultant, Mr. Andrew
Wheble, did everything he could for me
to enable the pregnancy to continue
for as long as possible. I had
another amnioinfusion, bed rest in
hospital, antibiotics to reduce the
risk of infection, steroid injections
to enable the lungs to develop if it
were possible, bed rest at home, and
each time I saw him I would discuss
what I had found on the internet(this
site was of tremendous support because
although I knew it was likely that my
baby would die I knew that it wasn't
certain).
I also developed placenta previa! but
this may have been a blessing in
disguise because after I stopped
bleeding I stopped leaking for just 10
days between 24-26 weeks.
To cut a long story short, Sam Andrew
Munday was born at 31 weeks weighing
3lbs 13ozs. He was delivered by
emergency caesarean (I went into
spontaneous labour) on the 18th of
july this year. He cried when he was
born and had APGARs of 9. He was in
special care for over a month but
breastfed exclusively from 32 weeks.
He has his right leg in a splint as it
was squashed in the womb and bent the
wrong way when he was born but it is
repairing nicely and surgery seems
unnecessary.
My advice is : stay positive, if you
can visualise a happy outcome, rest as
much as possible, accept all medical
help but don't believe everything they
tell you (especially if it's bad
news), lean on family, friends and
your faith.
We don't know why Sam survived, there
is no medical explanation, but I feel
that he is a blessing to us all and I
hope that his story brings some
comfort to anyone in a similar
situation. Please feel free to email
me if you want more details of my
experience.
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