Preterm Premature Rupture Of Membranes

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Claire's Post PROM Story by Claire, Groton, CT US
PROM at 28 + 5 weeks, delivery at 29 + 1 weeks
Mail: clnimitz@hotmail.com Story added 2006-09-23

My first daughter Beth was born at 31 weeks following my prom at 29 weeks. She spent three weeks in the NICU and came home a healthy baby. We never found out why my seemingly normal pregnancy ended that way but were told it was most likely due to an undiagnosed infection. Based on that assumption we were told it would most likely not happen again.

When we got pregnant again I started having some problems with bleeding off and on around 20 or 21 weeks. I kept going to the hospital and to the doctor and they couldn't find anything wrong with me. I wasn't dilated. The monitors weren't picking up contractions.(although they hardly ever picked them up till the moment my daughter was born so I don't have much faith in those machines - and no, I am not overweight.) The doctor never really officialy put me on bedrest although I tried to limit my activities as much as I could while still caring for my daughter.

Around 28 weeks I went in for a check- up and the nurse thought I was dilated 1 or 2 cm's. I went to the hospital to be monitored and they said I wasn't dilated. But they did an internal ultrasound to check to see if my cervex was shortening. It wasn't. They went on to do a FFN (a test that helps predict if you will go into labor in the next week or two) - it was positive. Based on that and my continued bleeding and cramps they opted to go ahead and give me steroids for the baby's lungs. They did let me leave the hospital - I just had to return in 24 hours to get another shot.

I went to the hospital every day that week - it was just one thing after another. Finally on Sunday (Easter morning) I woke up at like 3 and I have to pee really bad. I got up and realized I must have already gone a little. Once I started walking though I thought it must be my water. When my water broke with my daughter it was a sudden gush...this started as just a trickle. My first thought was denial...I didn't think I could go through this again. I didn't want to go to the hospital and leave my daughter behind. (she was only 14 months old) I didn't want to have my son in the NICU either. I seriously thought about going back to bed but by then the leakage had picked up a lot and there was no denying what had happened. I woke up my husband and got dressed and then I just tried to stay still while he got our daughter up and ready to go and packed me a small bag.

When we got to the hospital I felt totally fine..no contractions or cramps or anything. I had to go through the ER since it was so late - when I told them I was only 28 weeks they got me a wheelchair and took me up right away. When I got there they monitored me a bit - other than the rupture nothing much had changed - I still wasn't dilated or anything. I had to get started on the IV antibiotics but thankfully didn't need any magnesium sulfade that time.

I stayed in the hospital on bedrest all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I only had to be on the monitors for 1 hour out of every 4 hours. On Tuesday night I noticed a greenish discharge and called my nurse b/c I was worried about it being an infection or meconium staining. The nurse called the doctor on call (not my regular doctor) and he totally blew her off and told her that's not what it was without even coming to see me. At 3am I woke up to pee and started having strong contractions every 5 minutes. They told me if I went into labor they wouldn't stop it so I figured that was the big day! I thought I would wait a while before calling my husband to come to the hospital but it didn't take long at all for the contractions to pick up.

By the time my husband got there and my regular doctor the meconium staining was very thick. His cord was also compressed and his heart rated dipped with each contraction. I was really thinking I would need a c- section but they began pumping fluid directly into my uterus and that solved the problem. I stalled out at 5 cm's and ended up getting a little pitocin - I also got an epidural around then.

He was born a little after 10am. His agpar scores were 7 and 8. I got a quick glance but didn't get to old him before he was taken away. He was breathing okay but began to tire quickly so they put him on a CPAP. Within a few days he went to the canula. And maybe a week or so after that he was off of oxygen all togeather! He spent a long 7 1/2 weeks in the NICU although he had no real health problems. The big issue was that when we tried to feed him he would choke and his alarms would go off - almost everytime. Also they were very strict about discharge standards compared to the NICU my daughter was in.

Matthew was born at 3 pounds 5 ounces and just over 15 inches. By the time he came home he couldn't even fit into his preemie clothes! He is now 5 months old and is perfectly healthy so far. He is on no monitors and needs no medication or anything extra at all.

We are very lucky to have now brought home two healthy preemie babies. Once again we did not get an answer as to why this happened. They did take samples to do tests on when I gave birth but didn't find anything useful. I had a severe infection but there is no way of knowing if that happened before or after the pprom.

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