By Abby, boston USA
PROM at 18 weeksDelivery at 27 weeks + 6 days.
Story added: 2003-11-20

After 2 1/2 yrs and 5 ivf's, we became pg with twin boys. I was ecstatic but cautious throughout my entire pregnancy. From the beginning, nothing was easy.
At 6 1/2 wks I bled and was told I had a subchorionic hematoma that would most likely resolve itself. I bled on and off for most of my first trimester. At 11wks, we had a nuchal scan and one of the twins showed some abnormality. We were advised to have a CVS on the one twin. Thankfully, the results came back to show no abnormalites. Finally I breathed a sigh of relief and felt somewhat confident that the remainder of the pregnancy would be okay. At 18wks I awoke to soaking underwear and rushed to L+D after calling my OB. My FERN test came back negative and my u/s showed pleanty of fluid around both babies. 3 days later I went back to my OB and the fern test was then positive for amniotic fluid. I was put on bedrest at home and for 4 consistent wks, both babies showed pleanty of fluid although one was slightly lower. At 22wks I began to bleed again, pretty heavily. After a long night at L+D, I was finally admitted to the hospital until I delivered. At this point, both babies were leaking fluid and we assumed I had a placenta abruption due to the bleeding. Since I was only 22wks, the physicians talked to me about terminating the pregnancy. This was not an option for me. I just had a feeling I wasnt going to go into labor and I did everything in my power to keep myself infection free. Every day unfortunately, I continued to leak fluid. Each u/s showed moderate to severe oligo with both boys. I cried all of the time but had to hold on to the fact that I had my boys inside of me and would do all I could to have them be okay.
At 28wks,my bleeding got worse and after being monitored all day long, the contractions were getting a bit heavier. (I had contractions on and off for the entire 6wks due to having an irritable uterus and such low fluid). On Aug 7,2003, Zachary and Jared were born via c-section. Zachary first, 2lbs,10oz and Jared at 2lbs, 9oz. Good weights for being only 28wks. Unfortunately, 7hrs later, Zachary passed away from severe pulmonary hypoplasia. We had always been warned that Zachary may not make it but I had to hold on to hope. Jared is now 15wks (3wks gestational) and still in the NICU with severe BPD (Chronic lung disease)Although its been an incredibly hard road (grieving for Zachary and jared's health issues) I am thankful every day I continued with my pregnancy. I strongly believe in the long run, Jared will be okay and thankfully, his "only" issues are his lungs. (This a combination of lack of fluid; hypoplasia, and bpd. He has a trach but we hope to have him outgrow it by 2yrs old)
For those of you reading this, my heart goes out to all of you. PPROM is so unfair, nervewracking, frustrating and so out of our control. All I can suggest is stay strong and follow your heart-the rest is out of our hands.