By Kat, Fayetteville, AR USAI knew nothing about what happened to me until after it was all over and I started reading.
PROM at 20 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 21 weeks + 1 days.
Story added: 2006-10-04
It was early on a Sunday morning when I woke up to a little leak. I assumed it was urine. It happened several more times over the day. Once I picked up the phone to call the dr/hospital just to check but the line was busy and I didn't try back. I talked online to some other moms I had become friends with and many said they had leaked urine in their pregnancies, one said it was because her baby was low and sat on her bladder, and I knew our baby was sitting low. We'd been to the doctor the previous Wednesday and things were right on track. Everything up to this point had been right on track.
The next morning, Monday morning, I called the doctor to let them know what had happened and just be sure I shouldn't be concerned. The nurse seemed confused and had to call me back. I called into work and told them I'd had a problem and may not be able to come in. (I had been given a lot of problems from them during my pregnancy.) The nurse called back and said the doctor said come in now and be worked in. I thought nothing of this because I know that's how it works when you need to come in on short notice.
We sat in the exam room for a while, laughing and making jokes. The doctor finally came in (24+ hours after the leaking started, very little leaking on Monday, it seemed to have mostly stopped)... he checked me and came back and said I had ruptured my water and the situation was grave. He sent me to the downstairs hospital to be immediately admitted. We had very little clue what was going on and weren't explained much. The nurses started IV antibiotics and said usually they put you on strict bedrest and I might "be there for a while". I was fine with that if that's what I had to do.
The next morning, Tuesday, they came in to do an ultrasound and measure the fluid. They said the baby's belly was full of fluid but he only had a tiny pocket of fluid near his mouth. They said it was about a 2, and should be an 8. I leaked a small amount a couple of times that morning and worried that I was leaking the remainder of the fluid out.
That was at about 8 am... the heartbeat was strong and the baby seemed fine and was measuring 20 weeks and 6 days on most of his measurements.
The doctor didn't come in til noon and he said there was "no fluid" and that the chances of this baby making it was almost 0. He said the options were to "go home" and monitor myself for an infection for the next several days or go ahead and induce labor and deliver knowing that the baby wouldn't make it. He painted a picture that I would need to make it to 24 weeks and the baby would most likely not make it even then... He said 70% of women either developed an infection or went into labor within 72 hours, which was one more day.
We discussed our options. We were very concerned at how the increased risk of infection could be deadly to me (how the picture was painted) and based on that and that there was so little chance the baby would survive that it was best to have the baby and try again later. We didn't ask questions, we didn't know what to ask. We told the doctor that we'd like to stay in the hospital one more day and if labor didn't start on its on, we'd go ahead with inducing. He said that would mean they'd give a pill to soften the cervix (My cervix was closed as of Monday afternoon)... and if needed, give additional medication to start labor. He said if we were going to do it, we needed to get started then and not prolong the inevitable. We said okay. I was very concerned about going into labor in the middle of the night as I had little sleep up to this point and was concerned how I'd feel. He said it would be 12-18 hours before labor even "started".
By 10 pm, I was starting to have enough pain to ask for the pain medication they recommended. Down the line, they said I could have an epidural. An hour after the pain medication, I felt no relief and had been made very dizzy and felt like my throat was closing. The nurse said we'd try the pain pills. I started with one, took another 30 minutes later and 40 minutes after that I felt no relief but worsened pains. Now I know they were actual contractions.
They called the doctor who was in the back sleeping who asked them to check my cervix. I was 7 cm dilated. He'd told us the baby was small and could deliver at 6 cm dilated. I felt pressure and told them I didn't think there was time for the epidural.
At 1:49 am, our son was born, and he held a heartbeat for about a minute. They said he never tried to take a breath because he couldn't since his lungs were not developed enough. We kept him in the room until we were discharged about 24 hours later.
At my 2 week check up, the doctor said the words "spontaneous rupture" and that my white cell count was up slightly indicating a probable infection (although my white cell count was up just slightly the month before as well)... he said we could try again in a few months and it would "probably not happen again". I'm not sure if I believe that but I hope he's right. I feel like we trusted our doctor and didn't ask questions. It just seemed like there was no chance but I can't help but wonder what if there was a chance.