By Rachel, Norfolk England
PROM at 17 weeks + 4 days. Delivery at 19 weeks + 6 days.
Story added: 2013-10-21

My story with a heart breaking ending. I am sharing to help others who may be searching for someone who has experienced the same as them. I had a twin pregnancy through IVF and at 17 weeks 4 days my waters broke, we went straight to hospital where they scanned me and confirmed twin 1 had almost no fluid left. Both babies were alive with strong heartbeats so I was sent home on bed rest with the possibility of going into labour and a full list of the risks/possible outcomes most of which were not positive. I had to go back to hospital 3 times a week for blood tests to check for infection. After a few days I was called into hospital as my latest blood results were showing signs of an infection. I was put on an antibiotic drip and the consultant asked us if we wanted to opt to end the pregnancy at that stage. I didn't understand why we would, we had fought so hard to get to this stage and despite the infection I felt fine so we declined every time we were asked. I was in hospital a week and each day the infection level was going down so I was then able to go home back on bed rest with continuing blood checks at hospital day visits and temperature monitoring at home. At this stage the consultant said best case scenario would be getting to 24 weeks without infection then helping the babies develop quicker with steroids to deliver them early...so 24 weeks was my aim. I followed every instruction given to me and as the days passed we began to feel a little hopeful that we may get to the end with success. But at 19 weeks 4 days I started getting a fever and sickness, we went to hospital they took bloods and thought it was an unrelated bug so I came home. The next day I got worse, felt very ill and was called into hospital with some panic at my blood results. I had developed a serious infection septicaemia. By the time we arrived at hospital I was having troubles breathing, my blood pressure was dangerously low & there was a general panic in the air. A team of staff attended to me and said I was going to critical care unit (ICU) where they would need to deliver our babies in order to treat the infection and save my life. At 19 weeks 6 days, the day we were due to have our 20 week scan and find out the sex of our babies our babies were born and devastatingly were too young to survive. We had twin boys who will stay in our hearts and with us forever. I stayed in critical/intensive care for another week whilst the infection was treated. My husband sat with me and supported me through it all. I will never ever regret our decision to fight for our babies but the situation you can find yourself in is very scary so my advice please if you too decide to continue with your pregnancy after PROM know the signs of infection & know when to get help. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me. To anyone else who has loved and lost I am so sorry.