By Stephanie, London, Ontario Canada
PROM at 21 weeksDelivery at 21 weeks.
Story added: 2000-04-27

Well I'm not sure if I put the gestational age right but I think so... I had started having back pain at work but it would ease after I got home and was resting this happened for 2 days with everyone around me telling me "welcome to the world of braxton hicks" on the second day I started passing mucus but was to see my ob/gyn the next day and the back pain wasn't as severe so I held off till then.

The next morning when I saw him I explained everything and he told me it was normal for my stage in pregnancy and it was just the baby putting pressure on the nerves in my back but didn't check me at all. I went home reassured and had a nap. I woke up just in time to catch a cab to work and then after arriving I started getting the back pain again but worse and getting increasingly stronger and more painful and I started feeling pressure. I called the hospital that my dr works out of to find out where I was suppose to go either there which is a children's hospital or the other one in town (which happens to have an extensive neonatal ward and known for their great care) but the resident I spoke to talked to my dr who happened to be on call that night and told me to go straight to labour and delivery there.

So off I went and after some time my dr came in after the nurse told him she could see my stomach contracting and he did an ultrasound and there was my precious son dancing around as always.... well then after that he did an internal and found that the membrane was hourglassing and I was 2 cm dialated. He explained what was going on and that they were going to attempt to invert the bed to see if it would go back in then he would perform an emergency cerclage.

I was absolutly terrified and completely still as the nurse prepared my iv. With the next pain my water broke so the nurse got the dr and he told me there was nothing more they could do... that I would be delivering my baby and it would not survive. Ryan Wayne Alexander was born at 12:40 am December 24th 1999 and died a few minutes after birth as well as a valiant attempt to breathe on his own... does anyone know if that is right that nothing could be done?

During delivery the dr told me he thought the placenta was loose and then they thought that he was too small at 375 grams for his age but at 21 weeks the fetus is actually at 19. An autopsy was done and nothing was wrong with him, the placenta or my blood work at all.