By Karin Trauman, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania USAUpdate oct 1999
PROM at 20 weeks + 4 days. Delivery at 29 weeks.
Story added: 1998-10-13
My membranes ruptures at 20 weeks, 4 days. After 6 days of hospitalization and remaining stable, I was sent home on strict bedrest. The outlook was grim. My doctor, a perinatologist, gave us only a 10% chance that our baby would survive and that was only if delivery could be postponed until after 24 weeks gestation, the age of viability. Despite these odds, we continued the pregnancy and asked everyone we knew to pray for a miracle.
After 8 1/2 weeks of bedrest, an infection set in suddenly and I was experiencing contractions at 2 minutes apart. Upon arrival at the hospital, I was dialated to 4cm. My doctor determined a c-section was necessary within the hour in hopes of preventing the infection from reaching our baby. We beat the clock and the baby did not get the infection!
Michael David was very sick his first hours of life. He was intubated in the delivery room and I got a quick glance at him before they rushed him to NICU. His eyes were wide open and looking in my direction. At that moment, I thought he had a chance. Michael's lungs required maximum oxygen and pressure. They were only 50% the size of what they should have been. The doctors were concerned his lungs would be perforated and that he would not survive.
Then he began responding to the ventilator and his lungs began to expand.
He was on the high frequency ventilator for 15 days, CPAP for only one day and is now on oxygen only after just 18 days of life! He is stable and a beautiful baby boy! What a fighter he is!!
His outlook is great and they will move him to the stepdown room in the ICN any time now. The doctors consider his progress remarkable! We held him for the first time on 10/11/98 for only 15 minutes and again yesterday 10/12/98 for 1 1/2 hours. It was such a wonderful feeling after such a long struggle during the bedrest and after his birth!
God does work miracles and modern medicine is terrific!
Don't give up hope if you are on bedrest and in a similar situation as mine. The odds are improving that our babies will be fine!
Michael just has a lot of growing to do at this point and we hope he'll be home for Christmas!
UPDATE OCT 1999:
Michael is now 12 months old (9 months corrected) and doing great! He came home after 70 days in the hospital weighing 5 pounds. We had an apnea monitor for 6 months. It alarmed occasionally, but we never had to stimulate him. He is a happy, healthy little boy who has a contagious smile. As far as his development, his gross motor skills are still "catching up." He rolls everywhere, does an army crawl, scoots backwards, gets up on all fours and rocks, and walks with a steady gate while holding onto our hands. He does sit independently but is not a great sitter yet. He topples over after several minutes and cannot yet get himself into that position. He's been seeing a PT to help strengthen his muscles. Achieving all these gross motor milestones are just around the corner. He's a babbler, and his cognitive and fine motor skills are all caught up! For having BPD at birth, he has had only 2 colds that he required albuterol and one of those he also had a pulse of steroids. His eyesight and hearing are fine. He's a pretty normal child now who has fought against all odds and won!
Karin (USA)