By Laura O'Neil, Toronto, Ontario Canada
PROM at 16 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 28 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2003-07-11

I was so excited to be pregnant! We had tried for almost a year, so when we saw that we were pregnant we were ecstatic. At 12 weeks, I woke up bleeding. Terrified, we went to the ER suspecting a miscarriage but we were told the baby was fine and to take some time off work. I did, and the bleeding went away within a week. I went back to work, but the bleeding started again, this time with cramping and clots. Once again we had an ultrasound and they assured me that the baby was fine. I went off work again. The bleeding finally stopped on April 10th. We were so happy we could finally enjoy our pregnancy! Four days later, now in my 16th week, I laid down in bed and felt a "gush" come from my vagina. Thinking I was bleeding again, I rushed to the toilet where I had another gush; it was a clear liquid. We went to the ER again, where they confirmed that it was amniotic fluid. They advised me that I would lose the baby within 3 days and put me on antibiotics to ward off infection. When that didn't happen, they told me it might take up to a week, then two weeks, then 6 to 7 weeks. We were starting to believe that the Doctors didn't know what they were talking about. They advised that the baby probably wouldn't be able to breathe on its own as the lungs would not have had a chance to develop. They suggested that we may want to consider terminating the pregnancy. My husband and I talked about it and we decided that we just couldn't end the pregnancy as everything else was on track. The heartbeat was strong, growth was good etc. I stayed home and drank lots of water.

Finally, in my 26th week, I started to bleed again. We went to the hospital at which point they admitted me. Things were status quo until the evening of July 8th when they found that the baby was in distress. His heartbeat was racing with many "dips" in the heart scan. They raced me in for an emergency c-section and my little son, Brandon, was born at 2lbs 1oz. The doctors tried their best to ventilate him, but his lungs just couldn't do it on their own. He lived for four hours.

Three days later, I'm now at home, wondering if the pain will ever go away and terrified to get pregnant again.

Miracles do happen, unfortunately, my story isn't one of them. Good luck to all of the PROM queens out there. It's not easy, but this website offers a lot of hope and good information. Take care of yourselves and love your babies.

Laura