By Mary Bouglas, cork ireland
PROM at 20 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 21 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2006-05-06

After 6 months of clomid, and two IUI’s we got pregnant with twins after our first IVF. We were so delighted could hardly believe it. Around the 10th week I began to have some bleeding. We had a scan and everything was OK. A week later I felt a gush of blood around midnight and we returned to the hospital. Again, much to our relief, they both looked OK and we were sent home. This was in December so we had a fairly nervous Christmas but at 14 weeks the bleeding stopped. I had felt really unwell for the first 13 weeks but began to improve dramatically from there.

Then one Saturday, just two days before 21 weeks, I felt a pop and knew that my waters had broken when I felt the gushing. I was admitted to hospital and the scan showed that the fluid was leaking from the first twin. We were told we just had to wait and see but that the chances were not very good. Four days later I went into labour. However when my labour stopped the doctor performed a scan and said the head of the first baby was just in my vagina and he would try and deliver without disturbing the second baby.

Using a forceps he delivered our first little girl Jacinta using forceps. She lived for just a few minutes but was too tiny at just over 21 weeks to survive. The second baby stayed in situ and we had the awful situation of mourning our first little girl while trying to keep our hopes up for the second baby. I was so anxious, thinking that every twinge was a sign of labour coming on for the second time. On the same day that Jacinta was buried we had a scan later in the afternoon. I was unable to attend the funeral because I was still in hospital. But from such a dreadful morning we got very hopeful news and saw the baby moving around and looking beautifully healthy. We were so afraid to hope.

Our doctor was wonderful, optimistic but not unrealistic. I was put on various antibiotics and as the days passed I could see that he was getting more hopeful. I was scheduled for another scan on Friday, which would have been ten days after Jacinta’s birth. However on the previous night I developed a fever and high temperature. It was clear I had developed the dreaded infection. At 3am he performed an amniocentesis to see if the baby also had the infection. An hour later the result came back that the baby was fine. The following day my temperature had dropped a little but it kept creeping back up. The medical staff stressed that if it came to a choice between me and the baby they would have to induce labour.

But on the Saturday evening my waters broke again and a short time later I went into labour and delivered our second beautiful daughter Lara. Despite being able to hear her heartbeat when my labour started she was stillborn. We were broken hearted. It’s still so hard to believe my babies are gone so long before they were even due to be here.

The subsequent tests showed that I had had an ascending infection but really it tells me nothing useful because that is probably an infection that occured after the first delivery.

Now it seems so strange that when we are mourning our little girls we have to think about trying again. I’m 36 so feel we don’t have the luxury of time. We have two frozen embryos from our IVF cycle. The last time 2 were transferred which resulted in our twins. The problem is that our obstetrician feels we should only transfer one the next time. Our clinic doctor says that of course it will be our decision ultimately but it’s clear that he believes its best to go with 2. I’m wondering if any else has had similar experiences? I only found this website after leaving hospital, and certainly wish I had had it while there.