By Erica, Geelong, Victoria Australia
PROM at 16 weeks + 6 days. Delivery at 17 weeks.
Story added: 2005-08-25

Tuesday 15th March I came home from water aerobics and decided to do a HPT, it was a faint positive. So I went to a doctor the next day but it came up negative. Come Friday 18th I had so many symptoms so I bought 2 sensitive tests at the supermarket and they both came up positive straight away. I took myself off to get a blood test the next day (Saturday). That night we had close friends engagement party. On the way home the next morning we stopped at the doctors and I was told that it was positive by the receptionist (who was pregnant). Finally after 12 months we had the result we had been waiting for. I also had an appointment in Melbourne to look into Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, but I rang and cancelled it on Monday.
At 6 weeks I had a bleed and went to casualty thinking it was all over. They did an ultrasound and we saw our tiny little peanut with a heart beat.
Then at 11 weeks I had another bleed and went in again and had an internal to make sure my cervix was closed (it was)…it’s was very painful as the woman was a new doctor. Between her and a registrar they tried to get baby on a portable ultrasound machine but couldn’t. Next minute an older male doctor comes in with his entourage
and does the scan. There baby was jumping around and arms were going everywhere.
Looking back now I wish I had of got a print out.
For the first 3 months I was very nauseous but only threw up twice but felt the need constantly. We bought a boat and I spent nearly all my pregnancy out fishing.
Then at around 3 months I started to throw up. I know see it must have been a sign.



My waters broke on Friday 10th while watching a DVD with DD. At the hospital they did an ultrasound and it showed baby's heart beating but not enough amniotic fluid. At this stage I was bleeding as well and DP came from work to the hsopital.
We had a great midwife who prepared us for what was going to happen, what the baby would look like and what our options were for afterwards. On Saturday 11th June, I woke DP early because I was worried about a parking fine and I needed some stuff from home. He went home and rang a few people and had a shower. I went to the toilet at about 10am and felt something coming out. The midwife checked and it was her little foot. I had started to get some hope that she would be ok because the bleeding had stopped. I can see now it stopped because she was blocking the path. The doctor came in and rang DP to come back.
I was a complete mess and didn't want to push her out and wasn't having any urge to either.
In the end I looked at DP and said I’m just going to have to do this aren't I darl. With every push my heart broke and I could feel her little shoulders and head come out.
The midwife had to cut the cord and make sure it didn't go back inside me, in this time her little heart stopped beating. She wrapped her and put her on my chest. She was about 20cm long, had tiny everything-feet, hands, toes and he even had fingernails. One of her big toes was sticking up in the air. The doctor looked at her to confirm the gender and said it’s a boy. So for the next month we named our baby Kyle Joshua, thinking she was a he. But babies so young can have a large clitoris if a girl, which was the case. We were also told that they would have to cut her open to be sure. I said to her that I think she is downs syndrome and she said that the distance of his eyes is normal for a 17 gestation baby but he has thick neck and his ears are lower. The midwife wrapped her in a little blanket and put her in a sleeping bag that some church people make for this kind of thing. She also gave us a box that we could bury or cremate her in.
We both held her and just were so amazed at the miracle of her. I ended up having to have a D & C as the placenta was stuck. I was in so much pain afterwards, physical and emotionally.
I spent that night alone and woke in tears.
As she was under 20 weeks gestation we didn't have to have a burial but we couldn't imagine pathology taking her and burning her with all the hospital waste. We decided to have her cremated and pathology would pick her up on Sunday and bring her back Tuesday so that we could pick her up for cremation. We had her genetic tested for Down syndrome.
I was so scared that they wouldn't bring her back.
We picked our daughter up and after DD was finished at school, the three of us took her out to the cremetorium. We picked her ashes up the next day.
It has now been 10 weeks since we lost Catharine. We have organised a plague at the local cemetery with some of her ashes there. We will have a small informal memorial for her. I wanted to do this because I think we rushed decisions that we were not in the right mind to make.
I am in the process of looking into any reasons it could have been. Tests taken came back Strep B and CMV but they can't say if either was the cause of my waters breaking.
Thank-you for reading my story.
Erica