By Andrea Walz, Commerce Twp, MI United States
PROM at 17 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 25 weeks + 6 days.
Story added: 2011-02-06

My husband and I had been trying to conceive for over 1 year and decided to move to IUI which did not result in a pregnancy. We then moved on to IVF. The first IVF did not yield a pregancy. The second one did but unfortunately I miscarried this pregnancy at 6 weeks. We decided to give the IVF another try and were elated to find out we were pregnant with twins. We were even more excited to find out we were having a boy and a girl. At 16 weeks I began feeling a sensation of pressure and felt something was wrong. At that ultrasound it was discovered my cervix was short and funneling. I was immediately put on bedrest. About a week later, my water broke on twin A. We were devastated. We were told that I would probably go into labor within 24-48 hours and lose both babies. The doctors were very good and explained about termination of pregnancy and said I could certainly wait it out and make it to 24 weeks when a baby is viable. We did not hold out much hope for twin A as she had 0 fluid but had hope for twin B whose sac remained intact. I was on bed rest for 9 weeks. It was the most miserable and lowest point in my life not knowing if these babies would make it and knowing I could go into labor or get an infection at any point and lose them both. It was so heartbreaking. I decided to do my bed rest at home to try and keep my sanity. At 25 weeks 6 days I got an infection and had to have an emergency C-section. Twin A was born at 1 lb 6 oz (our girl). We named her Madison Elizabeth and Twin B (our boy) was born weighing 1 lb 13 oz and we named him Brendan David. Madison only lived about an hour before she passed away. Her lungs were just too underdeveloped for her to survive. Brendan was in the hospital for a total of 4 months. He had his ups and downs and was on and off the vent but thanks to an amazing neonatologist and a terrific team of nurses Brendan came home weighing almost 7 lbs and did not need any oxygen. He did have to have the ROP surgery for his eyes. Today he is 13 months old and doing amazing. He was in OT and PT and walked before he was a year old. He is such a blessing and continues to amaze his mommy and daddy every day. We both thank God for this miracle.

When I was going through PPROM, I came to this site all the time to read these stories. To anyone reading this and going through this terrible time, I hope this gives you some glimmer of hope as they did for me.

God Bless