By Lauren Paul, Waban, MA UUS
PROM at 29 weeksDelivery at 36 weeks.
Story added: 2002-01-25

In April 1995, I was 29 weeks pregnant with my first child, a boy. I woke up at about 1AM to go to the bathroom and the bed was wet. I smelled a strange odor so I looked up in my pregnancy book, which mentioned PROM. OB said I should rush to the hospital. They started terbutaline and I remained there for six unhappy weeks. (The day I was admitted they determined the baby was 3.5 lbs.) I was "rock-stable" during my stay. No sign of infection at any time. No contractions. At 35 wks, my OB took pity on me and let me go home. At 36 wks I stopped the terb and went into labor that night. I delivered Drew on May 23, 1995, after only 6 hours of labor. He weighed 6 lbs, 1oz and had very good Apgars.
After birth, he was whisked away. they did a spinal tap (without informing me!) and a few other tests. He never passed his meconium, which was worrisome. He came home after a week but would not eat. We went back to the hospital when he was 2 wks old (severely dehydrated and with a serious bowel obstruction). They told us he had Cystic Fibrosis. But within a week, that turned out not to be true. He did have Hirschsprung's disease, in which the large intestine (or colon) is missing certain nerves that it needs to sense the presence of stool. He had a colostomy at 3wks, then a reversal of that and a repair of the underlying disease at 9 months. He's been a joy and totally healthy since then. He's now almost 7 and I am expecting again. I'm wondering what will happen this time.