By Stefani Pollock, Folsom, CA USA
PROM at 17 weeksDelivery at 23 weeks.
Story added: 2004-01-05

It has been almost six months since we lost our son, and I am now ready to tell our story. In June of 2003, at 17 weeks pregnant, I was told by a genetic counselor that my advanced maternal age of 34 was reason enough to
have an amnio. We were not informed of all of the risks, just that we had a high enough risk for DS to outweigh the risk of amnio. My DH and I were at a loss, but told we had to decide in the next 10 minutes so they could do the
procedure with our Level II U/S. Since it didn't sound like a big deal to us as decribed by the professionals, we decided to go ahead, since the docs seemed so sure that we should. The fetal medicine doc put one needle in me, and then pushed and pushed, and wriggled a stint, then another and another until a contraction showed on the screen and my baby reached up for the needle. He couldn't get that one through after trying for over 10 minutes. So, he pulled the needle out, and despite my question to him that maybe we should stop and call it a day...he continued to poke me again, only lower this time. I now had
two holes in my uterus and amniotic sac that would need to heal...and my chances of risk had then just doubled...my concerns and question to stop ignored.

Shortly thereafter, I made it into my primary doc with a question about a foul/musty odor in discharge. She agreed to see me and looked in to find my bag of waters bulging out of my cervix and leaking amniotic fluid from the
procedure. She said our baby had no chance of survival and wanted to terminate immediately. I said NO....we will fight. I went to bed for the duration, and prayed to make it to at least 24 weeks, when the docs would be able to fight for my baby's life if he were born. During this time, I was in and out of the hospitals begging for antibiotics to fight the infection that was taking over.
My white blood cells went from a normal range of 12,000 to double that at 24,000 and higher. I was severly infected and nobody would help....the only offer of
help was to deliver the baby. At 23 weeks, my friend found a perinatologist who agreed to admit me to his hospital that day and start me on an IV drip of
antibiotics. We were elated!!! At 3am that morning, I went into labor and it couldn't be stopped. I delivered my beautiful baby angel that afternoon at 5:07pm. Our beautiful angel Aidan did not live through the delivery.

By the way, the Fetal Medicine Clinic did call us and let us know that we had a healthy baby boy with no chromosonal defects. I called them back to let them know what had happened as a result of the amnio...

I am sorry if this story is upsetting, but if I had only had one person tell me this story, I would have NEVER gone through with the amnio! I will always love and miss my Angel Aidan.

I am now 10w3d p/g again, and we will not even have an AFP this time. We will take whatever God gives us and be blessed. A lifetime of missing my son is my sentence for my ignorant decision.

My apologies for such a gloomy story, but I don't know that I will ever get over this loss. I have sought therapy, and it is helping, but I will always feel guilty and sad for this loss.

Stefani