By Anastasia, Philadelphia, PA USA
PROM at 36 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 36 weeks.
Story added: 2001-04-09

I woke with a start at 6am on August 14th 1999, a month and a day before my EDD. I thought I was wetting the bed! As I ran to the bathroom I realized what it was. My water broke. I frantically started to poke my belly to see if my baby was ok. I was rewarded with a squirm. I called my OB's office. She was away for the weekend, but the doc on call was a high risk specialist, this worked out well in my favor. He told me to come in to see if I was in labor.
When I arrived at triage I was hooked up to the monitors, my baby's heart rate was ok and I was having no contractions. The nurse and resident both asked me if I really did wet the bed? They checked the fluid and it was positive, my membranes had ruptured.

Up until now , my pregnancy was uneventful. I was very large, holding alot of fluid and my pressure was high for me but within a normal range. My blood sugar also went borderline high a few times. The nurses at the office and myself brought these issues up to the doctor but she said there was no concern. At around noon I started to receive IV antibiotics since I had not yet been tested for Strep B. The infusion were painful. I was still not having contractions and they would not do a pelvic exam for fear of infection.

At 6pm, they started Pitocin. Then I had contractions! Painful, irregular and frequent. After 3 hours of that I though I'd be ready to push. The resident did the first pelvic exam I'd had that day. I was not dialated at all! I started to cry and told them I wanted an epidural.

The OB came to see me at 9pm. If I was not fully dialated in 12 hours he would do a C-section. I settled in for the night and tried to rest.

At 6 am the next day, I was 8cm. I was fully dialated at 9am, no C-section. I started pushing, and did so for an hour and a half! I was begging for the forceps! Finally I heard the doc say, "Here's the head", then, "She's aspirated" I knew this was serious and pushed one final time with all my might. At 10:36 on August 15th, more than 28 hours after my water broke, he held her up and proclaimed, "Here's your daughter!" They then whisked her away and suctioned her for what seems ages. I heard her cry like a baby lamb. I was able to hold her briefly before they took her to NICU where she spent 5 days.

We are both home and well! I hope I can encourage others to be more vocal if they don't feel right in their pregnancy. I never really found out what the cause of my PROM was.

Anastasia