By Christine, Mansfield, CT USA
PROM at 13 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 16 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2006-09-12

My husband and I were planning to move back to CT ... we had been living in Portland ME while he attended school ... learned that I was pregnant (first try) in July ... we waited until he was out of school ...we were moving as soon as one of us found a job ... saw doc at 8 weeks ... saw doc at 11 weeks ... could not detect heartbeat at 11 weeks so scheduled an in-office ultrasound - heartbeat confirmed ... ultrasound was transvaginal ... given copies of ultrasound ... at 12 weeks we told family of pregnancy ... we wanted to wait until the start of the 2nd trimester to tell people ... on the following Saturday we were walking on the beach and I bent down to pick up some pebbles ... felt a trickle ... but figured urine ... went to the nearest bathroom and tried to go, but nothing ... started home ... felt leaking and wet pants ... left wet spot on car seat ... called doc office ... spoke to rude on-call doc who asked if this was my first pregnancy and when I said yes told me that it was urine ... when I insisted that it was not urine (I am in the health care field and know what urine smells like) ... he told me that if it was amniotic fluid, which he doubted, there was nothing that he could do so to just lay low and come into the office Monday. Did some research about membrane rupture and found this website. First thing Monday morning we went to the doctors office ... again told that it was unlikely amniotic fluid and to relax ... ultra-sound was completed ... to me and my husband the baby looked different than last week ... kind of squished looking ... before was floating, moving and head looked round ... asked the tech ... who of course is not allowed to say anything ... she did show us the heartbeat ... and insisted on transvaginal ultrasound to get more info ... we question the sterile issue (we had read over the weekend that they were not a good idea post rupture) ... (not knowing if what we had read was accurate ... figuring she did ultrasound for a living she would know) ... after the ultrasound we then sat in the waiting room for about an hour ... finally were led into an exam room ... nurse called us out to her office to answer some questions ... while in there she peeked at the ultrasound and told us everything was fine ... showed us the AFI ... went back into the exam room and sat for a few minutes ... my husband and I talked about how stressful this pregnancy was going to be, but how relieved we were ... after a few minutes ... a doctor we had never seen came in and said that the membrane had ruptured and there was no detectable fluid ... what ?!?! ... told her what the nurse had said ... she left ... could hear her yelling ... she returns and tells us that the nurse did not relize that we had an ultrasound 11 days earlier and was looking at that one ... if she had looked in the file she would have seen the more recent one ... we were shocked and devastated ... even more so b/c we had been prepared for bad news - were given good news - only to have it taken away ... not a good experience ... was told to go home, complete bedrest, drick lots of fluid, watch for signs of infection and return in 3 days ... at 3 days another ultrasound was completed ... fluid was detected ... AFI was 2.4 ... doc was surprised to see fluid but said he knew very little and referred us to specialist ... saw specialist next day ... very nice knowledgable docs/techs ... gave us all of our options ... including experimental treatments ... I think it helped that we had read everyhting we could and pretty much already knew the options ... went home to think ... returned for two more visits 5-6 days apart ... each time fluid was 2.4 - 2.8. At 16 weeks we decided that we would terminate the pregnancy ... it was a difficult decision, but in the end the right one for us ... the timing was bad ... we were moving in two weeks, I was supposed to be starting a new job (my dream job)running a non-profit agency (I was offered the job the weekend that the membrane ruptured), the health risks of bedrest for another 20 weeks, and the biggest for us was the odds of having a healthy baby - more specifically the lung issue (my husbands sister had recently died from a lengthy illness and we were not ready to do that again) ... we thought about waiting a few more weeks to see what happened ... but I did not want to go through labor and delivery ... I wanted to be able to have a D&E ... we had read a lot of stories about peoples decisions to terminate for a variety of reasons (there is a real nice website) ... it took us a little bit to find a doc willing to do a D&E ... apparently it is risky after 12 weeks ... the doc that we found was great ... the experience was a positive as it possibly could have been ... the hospital staff was great too ... we visited the neonatolist again after the termination to discuss the results of the autopsy and other tests ... genetically everything tested fine, no infections found, everything seemed normal ... at the bottom of the record the phrase "PPROM cause unknown" was typed ...we decided to try again as soon as possible ... they recommended 4 months ... we conceived exactly 4 months later ... 2nd pregnancy ended at 34.5 weeks with PPROM and a healthy baby boy who is going to be 2 in October ... see other story ... and expecting again ... I am 36 years old ... was 34 for first pregnancy.