By Millie, Ely, Cambridgeshire UK
PROM at 21 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 22 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2006-04-11

This was my first pregnancy and all went smoothly for the first 13 weeks. Then at 14 weeks I began to pass what I later heard described as 'large liver-like clots'. I was of course terrified as my only expectation was that if you bled in pregnancy you were about to miscarry. We went into the hospital for an emergency scan and all was well. Baby was fine. I was given the choice of staying in hospital or going home. There was nothing that could be done to stop the bleeding, so I decided to go home. This pattern of bleeding continued and we got used to the routine of passing a big clot (the biggest was about the size of a fried egg and 15mm thick) going for a scan and finding baby was fine. The bleeding fluctuated, but I kept a record of how much I was bleeding and the size of the clots. Somehow it gave me sense that I was in control of what was happening to me. I began to push for some answers about what was causing the bleeding and my doctor arranged for a appointment with a consultant after my routine scan at 21+3. At this scan we were relieved to hear that our baby was developing fine and was not being affected by the bleeding, but the scan also showed that there was no water in the membrane. I had not felt any rush of water, so presuably it had leaked out gradually with the blood. We went straight to see the consultant and he explained the possible outcomes to us. He gave us a 20% chance that the membrane would reseal and the waters would build up again. We were to return in a week for another scan. So we went home. I spent as much time as possible during that week lying still with my hands on my bump, thinking about our baby swimming in loads of water. I supppose it enabled me to think I was doing something positive, rather than just waiting. At our scan the next week, the worst happened. The consultant could find no heart beat. Anyone who has been through this will know that you clutch as straws, anything. Has there been a mistake? No mistake. Our baby had died. We arranged to come back to the hospital in two days to be induced, but nature took it's own course and our little boy, Douglas, was still born the next day. The delivery was rather traumatic, as I didn't know what to expect and the paramedic only just arrived in time for me to deliver the placenta. I delivered our baby into a wahing up bowl on the kitchen floor. Although it was terrifying at the time, in a a way I'm glad I didn't have to spend too long on the delivery ward. We had a post-mortem carried out and the chain of events seems to have been that the prostoglandin in the blood thinned the membrane. I then got an infection. Either the membrane tore because it was so thin, and then the infection got in, or the infection finished off the job started by the blood. It was the infection that caused Douglas' death. Next time round, I'll have extra scans to check where the placenta is forming (it formed too low and this is what caused the bleeding before) and I'll get checked for infection at 16wks. If only ths would guarantee everything would be fine....