By Amy Ripley, WV US
PROM at 18 weeksDelivery at 37 weeks.
Story added: 2001-02-12

The first month of pregnancy I had some bleeding, but after a week it stopped and all was going fine. At 18 wks I had a AFP test come back questionable for Downs Synd so my Dr recommended doing an amnio, the next day we did the amnio, then two days later I woke up in the middle of the night with some leaking.

I thought maybe my bladder was full, so I went to the bathroom. A couple of hours later I woke up again only this time when I got up it was like little gushes of fluid, so I knew my water had broken. My husband took me to the ER where the Dr confirmed it was amnio fluid. He said there was still "some" fluid around the baby and the heartbeat sounded wrong. I was admitted to the hosp and my bed was put in the trendelenberg position (feet above my head) for 4 days. I was given antibiotics for a week in case of infection. The Drs informed me of all the risks of continuing the pregnancy and said I only had 10% chance of making it to 28 wks, and would probably go into labor before the baby could survive or if I didn't have enough fluid I could go full term and the baby still not breathe when delivered.

They wanted us to make a decision to terminate or take the risk. I couldn't believe they wanted us to make this choice, it was obvious they thought terminating would be the best option since we didn't have much of a chance. The next day the results of the amnio came back (healthy baby boy) and we told the Drs we were going for it.

So I stayed in bed using bedpan for 2 wks then the next wk started getting up just to go to bathroom and I hadn't noticed any leaking. Drs did another u/s and said I had near normal fluid level and decided to send me home on bedrest only to get up to go to the bathroom and 5 min shower. I went to the Dr every 2 wks. I had irregular contractions the entire pregnancy and at 24 wks had some contractions that were coming every 2-4 min the dr told me to drink large amounts of water and take a Benedryl and try to sleep, when I woke up the next morn they had gone back to just irregular and far apart.

At 32 wks they started letting me sit up some. And at 34 wks started letting me get up and move around. At 37 wks my water broke (again) and delivered a healthy baby boy with no complications. Levi Trent was 5 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches and this miracle came home on Christmas Day. It blows my mind to think that I could have terminated this pregnancy and look how it turned out. It was a long hard road, but well worth it. Levi is now 7 wks old and already over 10 lbs