I woke up on a Thursday morning (15
wks + 6) everything felt normal but
when I went to the bathroom I found
I'd had a heavy bleed this seemed to
have stopped but then about an hour
later I returned to the bathroom to
notice the toilet bowled filled with
blood once again. My husband rushed
me to A&E at the local hospital. They
tried a few times but couldn't find a
heart beat using the doppler, I was
told this wasn't unusual at such an
early stage of pregnancy but was still
scared even though I still had no pain
and the bleeding has stopped again. I
was scanned and relieved to see that
all was ok. Blood tests and swabs
were taken all came back clear and I
was told I could return home and to
take things easy.
The following Sunday (16wks + 2) I was
in the kitchen when I felt a small
gush of warm fluid, convinced I was
bleeding again I ran upstairs but
there was no blood, about 10 mins
later the same thing happened. I
phoned the hospital who told me to put
on a pad and call again if things got
any worse. I lied on the sofa for the
rest of the day, things didn't get
worse I was in no pain, no bleeding
but kept losing slight trickles of
fluid. At this stage I had never
heard of PROM so I wasn't too worried,
but that night I said to my husband
that I had a feeling something was
wrong and we went back to the
hospital.
That evening the doctors confirmed
that I was leaking amniotic fluid but
my cervix was still closed and there
were no signs of labour. I was kept
in hospital overnight and put on a
course of antibiotics, then scanned
the next day to be shown just 2 small
pools of fluid remained but the
heartbeat was strong. After 2 more
nights in hospital the implications of
PROM were explained to me, I was
offered a termination, or told I could
wait and see what happened.
I returned home but was to continue to
take the antibiotics and check my
temperature 4 times each day. I also
had to return to hospital each week
for blood tests, blood pressure and
swabs to be taken and to be scanned
every fortnight.
I was told just to take it easy, but
decided myself to stay in bed as much
as possible, I also drank as much
fluid as I could after reading online
that some people had been advised to
do this. 2 weeks later we went for
the next scan, hoping to see more
fluid around the baby - but now there
was none at all but the heartbeat was
still strong.
At 19 wks + 6 we went for
the 'anomaly' scan, but there was so
little fluid it was hard for the
doctor to see everything. The heart
was strong, the baby was moving and
was measuring correctly. We were told
that everything that could be seen
looked to be fine.
At exactly 20 wks I started to bleed
again, still with no pain and not as
heavy as earlier in the pregnancy. We
returned to the hospital I was told
the blood was coming from an abrasion
on the cervix not from the pregnancy
which was good, I put it down to the
swab that had been taken the day
before. I was kept 2 days for
observation.
Again on returning home I stayed in
bed as much as possible, I didn't
really have any energy to do
anything. I got up in the afternoon
to take a shower and was devastated to
find the cord had prolapsed. Luckily
my husband was home with me and called
the ambulance. I knew by this stage
there was no hope for our baby, we
just lay on the bed and cried until
the ambulance arrived.
We were taken directly to the delivery
suite, the doctor confirmed the baby
could not tolerate a prolapse and they
would have to deliver asap to prevent
me getting an infection. I was given
2 tablets to start the labour, and
morphine as pain relief. The labour
lasted just over 1.5 hours and our
beautiful daughter was born sleeping.
She was tiny but perfectly formed, she
looked just like her Daddy.
My thoughts and prayers are with
anyone reading this who is going
through a PROM pregnancy. I hope that
your story turns out to be green -
never give up hope.
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