By Jessica, London UK
PROM at 15 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 18 weeks.
Story added: 2011-07-26

After 5 rounds of IVF and 2 previous pre 12 week miscarriages (both of healthy genetically normal foetuses - one boy Oct 2009, one girl June 2010), I finally thought it was my turn for things to go right. I had bleeding for 2 days around 8 weeks with big blood clots, but the baby looked fine, and they never saw any SCH anywhere on the scans. However, the 12 week nuchal was brilliant. The baby waved at me and did the lambada with its legs - all bouncing around in a sac of fluid which I now realise was a total luxury. At 42 my odds of something being wrong went from 1:38 to 1:785. Couldn't be better. How wrong could I be. After my pprom at 15 + 5 I had no fluid left at all. I had no idea what was happening when my waters gushed while I was out for a walk in the park. But it didn't feel good - in my bones. Turns out the intermittent pain that had kept me awake the night before wasn't trapped wind, but contractions in my uterus. The theory is that 'something' (not sure what cos so far the infection swabs have all come back clear) irritated my uterus which in turn caused my cervix to open briefly. The amniotic sac slipped down into the cervix and the 'pop' I felt inside when I was sitting in the park was exactly that - the sac popping. I went to hospital where my miscarriage specialist scanned me and confirmed zero fluid left. He warned me the outcome was very unlikely to be good and that for the sake of my health a termination might be a good idea, but once he mentioned it, he didn't push it too much. After finding this site and various other pprom groups on the web - with the help of a girlfriend who knew someone who'd been through this before, I self-prescribed bed rest, water and vitamins and began to sit it out. I genuinely began to believe again. I thought I might be in the 10% where it would still work out. Scans, bloods, doctor visits, three specialist opinions. In the end everyone agreed to expectant management as long as I continued to be well and show no signs of infection. I held on for exactly 2 weeks with the baby still growing and a tiny amount of fluid collecting now and then - particularly when the baby was lying transverse. Then two weeks after my gush, I started to bleed. Very slightly pink tinged fluid to start with, gradually going redder and redder all that Saturday. And since it was a saturday I took myself off to the private hospital to avoid A&E on a saturday night. They dopplered me on the Sunday and then had to scan me as they couldn't find a heartbeat. The doppler was looking for a heartbeat faster than my own. Unfortunately my little one was no longer feeling safe inside me - she was squished. And probably a little distressed The scan showed the baby in exactly the same position as it had been on Wednesday, but with a very slow heartbeat. Monday was bank holiday so they decided to watch and wait because if there was no heartbeat the doctor needed a full team to do the d&c and so he couldn't do anything til Tuesday. But on Monday morning in the shower passed something which I felt/thought was the umbilical cord (or a large piece of it) and stopped bleeding. None of the doctors or nurses were prepared to tell me what they thought it was on Monday. Just said it was probably some membrane. I never had a fever or any contractions or anything. By Tuesday and the scan at 9.30 am my baby had died. The specialist came and said yes he thought what I passed the day before was umbilical cord. Then they gave me meds to open my cervix (putting me into unremitting labour pains for 40 mins) and took me down for the D&C. My little baby girl was head down and so they were able to get her out in one piece. I was able to see her to say goodbye. I named her Tilly when she was in me fighting for survival as it means fighter/warrior. They still don't know what happened to cause my pprom. There was no sign of infection, and since the cervix then remained closed no sign of IC either. The testing all came back normal. The baby, the placenta everything. At least the support and stories I found on the internet gave me hope to believe for an extra two weeks which I had with Tilly.