My wife's water broke on 16 February
in week 22 of the pregnancy. We went
to see the gynaecologist the next day
who confirmed that Maria had to be
admitted to the clinic immediately. We
stayed 30 days in the clinic, after
which we jointly decided with the
gynaecologist to be transferred to the
main maternity hospital in Cyprus with
a NICU unit. This was for the good of
the baby as there would be neonatal
specialists on hand to immediately
take care of the baby once he was
born. The other option of staying at
the clinic and rushing the baby across
town by ambulance to the NICU unit
once he was born was not an option for
us as we felt this was too risky for
the baby as precious time would be
lost.
We were transferred to the hospital
from the clinic by ambulance and the
doctors assessed the situation telling
us that it was dangerous given that
the water had broken so early in
pregnancy (in fact by the hospital's
calculations the day the water broke
would have been 22 weeks and 2 days
and not 22 weeks and 5 days). Steroid
injections were administered to Maria
on admission to the hospital to
strengthen the baby's lungs prior to
birth.
Throughout the period at the clinic
and the hospital the SDP measurement
of amniotic fluid varied between 17mm
and 41mm. At various points in time we
were told it was dangerously low, but
we kept hope even during these
difficult times. It appeared that just
enough fluid was being generated to
replace that which was being lost to
keep the level of fluid to the minimum
amount that was required by the
baby.
On 1 May around 9 p.m the contractions
started and Maria was admitted into
the labour theatre. Panagiotis was
born at 12.40 a.m on 2 May weighing
1,610g. He needed to be put on CPAP
briefly for 12 hours or so. He lost
weight at first going down to 1,540g
and then increased to 1,990g after
which we were allowed to take him
home. He is now 7kg and growing and
developing like a normal baby. The
only brief scare we had was an episode
of apnea but this was a one-off
incident.
My advice to anyone who is going
through this is to get as much
information as you can on PROM, read
stories on this site which were a
great source of strength for us, and
keep your faith in God. Miracles do
happen.
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