By Mike, Atlanta, GA USA
PROM at 17 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 36 weeks + 1 days.
Story added: 2000-01-21

After nine years of primary infertility, my wife became pregnant from our third IVF. At our Level II u/s at 15w5d, two soft markers for Down Syndrome were found and we were advised to have an amniocentesis. We initially declined but gave in after nine days.
The amnio initially went well, with no bleeding, cramps, or leaks. Thirty-six hours later, at 17w2d, my wife awoke to a major fluid loss. An ultrasound confirmed the leak and there was absolutely no fluid left around our baby. Her amniotic sac had separated from her chorionic sac (complete chorio- amniotic separation). Just before leaving the office with the grim news, we were told the results of the FISH test: no Trisomies found - a normal baby girl.

My wife went on bedrest at home and drank water constantly. She had several smaller leaks in the weeks that followed. By 19w a small amount of fluid had reaccumulated. At 22w there was no more improvement and things looked bleak. Our peri thought there was continuous leaking that my wife couldn't detect. The good news was that the two sacs had finally fused together.

At 26w, the u/s showed a huge increase in fluid. We were still oligohydramnios, but nowhere near as bad as before. Unfortunately, our baby's growth was lagging behind (2 weeks) and there was a possibility my wife would be hospitalized at 28w for IUGR if growth slowed further.

A couple of days before our scheduled 28w u/s, my wife had some brown spotting. We went in for an u/s that morning and they found that the low- lying placenta at 15w5d had become complete placenta previa. Our peri sort of laughed in frustration and said "Wow, now you've covered the entire chapter on pregnancy complications". He ordered our first round of steroid shots and told us to go to the emergency room if there was anymore bleeding. We didn't have to wait long, the next morning my wife woke up in a pool of bright red blood. She was hospitalized.

After eight weeks in the hospital and several more bleeding episodes, our little girl, Emily Ann, was born by scheduled c-section on September 30, 1999 at 36w1d. She was only 4lbs 11oz because of the placenta previa but was otherwise perfectly healthy. She stayed in the Transistional Nursery for six hours before being released to our room. She came home with my wife two days later.

We were never offered termination, probably because of the extreme difficulty getting pregnant and our age (I'm 36, my wife is 35). My wife never took antibiotics and was only given steroids after the bleeding at 28w and 30w, when delivery looked imminent.

Mike
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