By Deb Schwarz, Mill Valley, CA USAThis website and email list was a real godsend for me, so I want to take the time to share my story, in the hope that it will help others.
PROM at 28 weeksDelivery at 32 weeks.
Story added: 2001-04-03
First of all, a little background: At the age of 40, with a one year old, my dh and I underwent IVF for baby #2. IUIs didn't work (like they had for our dd), so we moved onto IVF. The first IVF didn't go very well (a huge cyst, and only two eggs). The doctor attributed it to my "old eggs".
Luckily we changed doctors and we very encouraged with the expertise and aggressive approach of our new RE (Dr. Zouves). We knew that our chances of multiples over the age of 40 were slim (1 in 1000 for more than two) so we tranferred all 5 embryos. After the usual stress and anticipation of IVF we were over the moon to learn that we were pregnant... with very high hcgs to boot! At the u/s we were pleased, but shocked to discover THREE embryos had implanted. One was much smaller so our RE told us not to expect it to develop. This prognosis was confirmed by a perinologist...and #3 (peanut) continued to be half the size of the others.
By the 11th weeks, our "peanut" (which by now, we were rooting for), began to catch up... so we knew that triplets were now in the cards. We researched the risk of triplets and discovered that there was no difference in outcomes between triplet and reduced triplet pregnancies.
I had a fairly uneventful pregnancy, with the exception that I had a lot of bleeding up until the 14th week (which I have since read may be a pre-cursor to later placenta/prom). I began to dread going to the bathroom! Ultrasounds showed nothing amiss. We opted for the nuchal translucency scan (NT) at 12 weeks, and we were thrilled with the normal range results. (one perinologist told me that at my age, there was "bound to be something wrong with one of them" - this was also the one that said that if we wanted to take home healthy babies that we should reduce).
I was more tired than I had been with my first pregnancy two years before....and I began getting big much more quickly, but other than that, things went fairly well. I made a point of eating lots of protein and calories after reading a very informative book "When you are expecting Twin, Triplets or Quads" by Dr. Luke.
At 20 weeks, I requested and received the home contraction monitoring machine. My contractions, for the most part, were under the limit of 4 per hour. I was happy to be up and about (a friend of mine with triplets was already bed-bound at 18 weeks). I was taking it easy (e.g. several hours in bed a day), but fairly mobile.
All of this was to end very suddenly, however, when at 28 weeks, I felt a trickle while I was in bed. Luckily I had read that ruptured water does not necessarily mean delivery right away, or else I would have been terrified. I knew that at 28 weeks, my babies would likely live, but might have complications.
At the hospital, my perinatologist did a cervical check and didn't think I had PROMed. My fibronectin test a week ago was negative and he didn't see any fluid. I told him that I knew the difference between urine and fluid, and this was definitely fluid. He sent me home.
Two hours later, I had another "gush", this time there was blood at well. I collected some of the fluid in a cup and headed back to the hospital. The doctor on call did a ferning test on the fluid and admitted me. I definitely had PROMed.
Over the next few days, I had magnesium (which made me dub my room "The Sahara Desert"), terbutalin (which I hated worse than the mag.), and then finally oral Procardia, which I remained on. My first goal was to make it two more weeks, to 30 weeks...which I amazingly did. Then it was 31.
The time in the hospital was difficult. The worst part was the hip pain from all the pressure of three babies. I kept having bleeds, which unnerved the nurses. Two times I was tranferred back to L&D in the middle of the night. Miraculously, every u/s showed adequate fluid in all three sacs, so they couldn't even ascertain which baby had PROMed. My perinatologist even began to think I hadn't PROMed!
At 32 weeks, though, my body had had it... and I began to go into labor. (the ave. for triplets is 34 weeks, so I felt very lucky). I had lasted a MONTH with PROM!! I was very happy. I later learned (by looking at preemies in the NICU) just how much that last month meant to the babies.
So, at 32 weeks, Madeleine Elise (3lbs, 6 ounces), Alexandra Jane (4.4) and Benjamin Conrad (4.6) were born! (turns out that Maddie, the peanut - and highest one in utero, had a velementous cord placement, the ruptured membrane, and all three had a placenta abruption - yikes! - I had really been on thin ice). They were all healthy, with Alex and Ben needing some o2 for a few hours. All were out of the NICU in a week. Maddie came home at 35 weeks, and Ben and Alex at 38 weeks (they kept having a's and b's).
Here's their homecoming pictures
As I write this, they are 9 weeks old, and growing like weeds. The girls are 7 lbs+ and Ben is 8 1/2 lbs! You'd never know that they were preemies.
I attribute the support of this website, my family/ friends, getting educated and thus remaining positive for my successful outcome Thanks so much for providing this wonderful resource! And for anyone embarking on the wild road of PROM... I hope my story has helped you in some way.
Deb and Anton
Katie (3/3/99), Ben, Alex and Maddie (1/25/01)