By Rachel, Seattle, WA USAMy PROM pregnancy started uneventfully, except for a small amount of spotting in my first trimester. Then, at 22 weeks and 3 days I woke up in the middle of the night with a feeling of wetness. It was not very bad so I fell back asleep. When I woke up in the morning I had a huge gush of fluid down my legs and we immediately went into the hospital.
PROM at 22 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 22 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2004-09-14
The next couple of days were devastating. They tested the fluid and found that it was indeed amniotic fluid. At that point there was a normal amount of fluid and my cervix was long and closed. We hoped that we might be able to keep our baby, Miles, inside for another few weeks. We met with many specialists and they were all very supportive in giving us information but not pushing us to make a decision.
The next morning we did another ultrasound and there was very low fluid. We did not want our baby boy to suffer with too little fluid but we did not want to induce labor at that point either. I had begun to develop a bit of a temperature so we did lab work to see if my white blood cell count was showing signs of infection. We decided that if I was showing signs of infection it would be too much for little Miles to endure and that we would induce labor.
My WBC count was high so it was much easier to decide to induce. My husband Jason and I went for a long walk and talked with Miles. It was a beautiful sunset and we felt it was very special to be out together one last time.
My labor was short and just before midnight Miles was born. He was born in his amniotic sac and lived for 15 minutes. He held our fingers with his hand, kicked his little legs, and moved his head. He was such a beautiful baby and we felt so blessed to have spent the time with him that we did. We took pictures of him after his birth and have them with us in his memory box.
I am now pregnant again and being seen by a very good perinatalogist - at 23 weeks my cervix was found to have shortened and funneled. A cerclage was placed and I later funneled to the stitch. We now think that incompetent cervix was most likely the cause of my PROM, even though my cervix was long and closed right after my PROM.