By Shannon, Toronto, Ontario Canada
PROM at 24 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 28 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2012-10-13

At approx 5 am during week 24 I was awakened by a leaking sensation. I rushed to the bathroom and fluid gushed out of me. I immediately paged my midwife who advised me to meet her at the nearby hospital. They swabbed the fluid at the hospital, told me it was amniotic fluid and I would most like deliver my baby within 24 hours. They gave me antibiotics and the stuff to strengthen the lungs (forget the name) and I awaited transfer to a high risk pregnancy hospital. When I arrived at the next hospital they told me the same thing, I would likely deliver within 24 hours. I did not. I was then admitted and told I would have to stay in hospital until the baby was born. I received ultrasounds about every other day and heartbeat monitoring 4x/day. I was informed in great detail all of the possible horrible things that could be wrong with my baby each week that I was there if I happened to deliver that week. 4 weeks later, on week 28, day 4 they detected that my son was in distress and could not stay inside me without fluid any longer. An emergency c-section was ordered so quickly that my husband did not even have time to get there in time for our son's birth. Kaden was born on Sept 16, 2009 weighing 2 lb 7 oz. I did not see him, they rushed him right into the NICU. He was vented and tube fed. I was in so much pain that I did not get to see him until the next day. He was swollen and hooked up to many tubes. He remained in hospital for exactly 3 months until his due date and then he came home with us. During his hospital course he was vented, then graduated to cpap then eventually to oxygen, but breathing and maintaining his O2 sats was his biggest struggle. Kaden is now a healthy, happy 3 year old. He supposedly has a mild hearing loss and/or auditory neuropathy (but you honestly wouldn't know it - he talks more than any other kid I know and has an incredible vocabulary) and he does have a very mild (grade 1) cerebral palsy which for him means only that his calf muscles and feet give him some trouble - walking was delayed and he now wears orthotic braces on this legs during the day. People that don't know he has this and sees him without the braces cannot tell there is anything wrong. We were truly blessed that he is such an amazing kid with minimal problems. It was however horribly traumatic and we are only now just considering the possibility of trying again. I was GBS positive (discovered once my water broke) and I was told that could have been a factor in my PROM. I wish all the other PROM families a healthy happy baby.