By Helga & Ben, Perth, Western Australia Australia
PROM at 26 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 29 weeks.
Story added: 2006-09-20

Up until the 26 week mark everything was going as per normal. The little one had been growing well and was as healthy as could be hoped. The only mild concern we had was a routine blood test result indicating that he was at a elevated risk for Down Syndrome. These fears were quashed however after the results came back form the Amnio that our doctor recommended, giving the all-clear.

However on the first day of the 26th week, I received a phone call around 10am from Helga who by this stage was understandably hysterical telling me that her water had gone. I got a taxi home and I new straight away she was right in her diagnosis. She was in bed at the time when she had then felt a "warm sensation" down her leg, similar to so many other stories on this website. She got up and the fluid had initially gushed out then slowed, to the point where it was a trickle by the time I arrived home.

We went to the hospital immediately where what we both already knew was confirmed. The doctor gave a course of steroids and Helga was admitted to hospital. She remained there for one week, with doctors and nurses monitoring her closely. After this time there was no change, so it was agreed by all parties that it would be best if she went home and wait for further development.

After around two weeks of as much bed rest as possible and waiting, on the morning of the 7th day of the 29th week, Helga told me that she had been getting some cramps, very irregular in time, but consistent. I took her to the hospital where she was once again admitted to hospital. Waiting around all day no one thought he was going to come, and that the contractions where just a false alarm. They got progressively worse however and around midnight we new it was happening. The actual delivery is a bit of a blur (for me, anyway) and it was relatively quick at around 90 minutes. Lots of people in the room (8 or so) taking care of lots if different things. Our baby boy Orri was born at 1.32 on the 27th of July weighing 1315 grams.

He was on CPAP for around 24 hours, and did have a rather lengthy spell under the UV lights for jaundice, but apart from that everything was going well. His weight gain was consistent (expressed breast milk helped a lot) and the tests on the hearing, eyesight, brain ect. gave good results (he did have a Grade 1 brain bleed, but this cleared up on his 2nd scan). Also, he did initially have bradys/desats for a long time, but they became less and less frequent as he got older.

The only major setback we had was when Orri got a viral infection when he was around 36 weeks CA. He struggled to breath for himself and went back onto CPAP for around 12 hours. After a course of antibiotics this seemed to clear up and he was back on track.

It has been around 8 weeks since he was born, and we have been told we will be able to take him home on Monday. He has just started feeding completely for himself and the bradys/desats are all but gone. I really cant wait!

This website has been a great help to us, so thank you all for posting. I am unsure why Helga's membrane ruptured so early, I guess life does not always go according to script. We were lucky, and my thoughts go out to all the people who were not so.

Helga and Ben.