My pprom happened at 18weeks. I will
go into as much detail as I can
because when I was reading all these
stories I wanted to know every little
detail possible! Up to the pprom I'd
had no problems pregnancy wise at all,
but at 8 weeks I did have tonsilitis
and was quite poorly and it may have
had a hand in my pprom but I'll never
know. I went to bed that night
(18wks3dys) after having been out to
the cinema for my birthday the next
day. I woke to find my pants wet and
thought maybe I'd wet myself but it
felt different so I went to the toilet
then back to bed but not long after I
felt really wet still and when I
checked it seemed colourless and
odourless and I knew it was amniotic
fluid from my first pregnancy, Thats
when I knew something was very wrong.
In hospital (not my own as I was
visitng parents) they gave us no hope
at all and offered us a termination or
conservative management (ie. go home
and see what happens. As there was a
strong heartbeat I could not bear to
terminate and thought I'd rather it
happen naturally. The scan showed
reduced fluid but still some. A week
later after leaking mostly at night or
when lying down I started to bleed a
little bit. We went to my local
hospital where I was scanned again and
there was now no fluid measurable at
all. They still gave us a bleak
picture but did not mention
termination. I stopped bleeding after
a day or two and went home. I
continued leaking pretty much none
stop, I had bloods and swabs etc done
twice weekly and fornightly scans
which always showed no fluid but baby
was growing and everything appeared to
be where it should be. At 23weeks I
started to bleed again this time much
worse as I woke up in a pool of watery
blood. They told me it was the
placenta coming away from the uterine
wall and the amount looked much worse
than it was due to being mixed with
fluid. From this point on I bled and
leaked copius amounts of fluid
constantly. I spent 3 weeks in
hospital and became anaemic from blood
loss but it was treated with iron
successfully. Then I went home at
26weeks and continued going to clinic
to be checked, still bleeding and
leaking all the time. Then at 30 weeks
exactly I went into labour, I didn't
even realise I was in labour because I
been having cramps constantly with the
leaking anyway. It got very regular
and quick and worse so we went into
hospital and they told me I was 1cm
dilated and tried to stop the labour
but 45 mins later I was fully dilated
and the baby was very distressed, as
he was breech I was rushed for an
emergency c-section. I had been told I
would need a classical c-section but a
transverse was thankfully performed.
Joseph was born weighing 3lb2oz in
poor condition, no heart rate. I was
told much later that his lungs were
completely rigid and they didn't think
they be able to open them, thankfully
they did. He was transferred to
another hospital with a higher level
NICU where he was put on an Oscillator
(high frequency ventilator) and he had
two chest drains in because of a
pneumothorax (punctured lung). He was
very sick and we were told it was
pretty much 50/50, which was better
than the 5% chance of survival we
always got during the pregnancy! He
came on leaps and bounds and came off
the oscillator after 5 days onto
normal ventilation then off that after
2 days, straight into oxygen, never
needed c-pap. He was transferred back
to our hospital after nearly 3 weeks
and spent another 4 weeks in NICU
before coming home on oxygen (very
small amount), he is now 10 weeks old
and just perfect. He will hopefully be
weaned off oxygen in a few months.
All the doctors were amazed I got to
30weeks but I have spoke to many
others who got this far or futher so
don't give up hope and the doctors
give you the worse case scenario every
time because they have to but it isn't
always the case, Joseph is proof that
they can beat the odds and bear in
mind I had NO fluid the whole 12 weeks
yet he survived. Please mail me if you
need support or encouragement.
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