By Suzanne Christopherson, Mpls, MN US
PROM at 24 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 24 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2007-02-08

This is our story. I am 39 years of age and this was our third IVF attempt for a second child. We found out we were due with twins in the fall of 2006. Since I had an earlier twin pregnancy that produced our son (I miscarried the other twin), we didn’t think we would have a much of a problem. We new a twin pregnancy had more risks than a singleton pregnancy. We were so excited until Jan 1 when our world fell apart. In hindsight I had amnoitic fluid leak and maybe cervical insufficiency. Each doctor has had a said something different. On December 31, I was trying to determine if it was urine or amniotic fluid. I had called the doctor on Jan 1 and he said I could wait until the morning when the clinic opened or come to the hospital. As the evening progressed I noticed a change in my vaginal fluid. I feel tremendous guilt for not going in sooner even though we have been told it would not have made a difference. We decided to go to the hospital. When I got there it was discovered I was dilated to 4 cm. I was devastated because I knew delivering at 24 weeks was not good. I was emergently admitted. I was put in the trendleburg position and was given my first shot of magnesium sulfate. The doctor told us he hoped to by hours or a couple of days. I made it past the first 24 hours and received my second shot of mag. sulfate. We were starting to hope that I would make it days now. However, just as I passed 24 hours of the second shot I was taken emergently to the operating room for a c-section. Abby's foot was in the vagina canal. Because of the urgency of the c-section I was put under general anesthesia and my husband was not allowed in the room. Our girls were born on Jan 3. They both weighed 1 lb 6 oz. There first head ultra sounds were good. On the third day of life Abby dropped her O2 sats and Kaia dropped her blood pressure because of this they did the second set of head ultrasounds earlier than planned. The news was devastating. Both girls had “catastrophic” irreversible brain damage. Because of this we chose to remove their life support the seventh day. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Even harder than my husbands cancer diagnosis and relapse. It has been 4 weeks since we buried our girls and I grieve every day for what has happened and for what will never happen. Every Sunday is hard because I think about how many weeks I should be. I also have a sister-in-law that is due the same week we were due and this is hard. I struggle with where we go from here. We are hoping to due another IVF attempt. This concerns me because we were fortunate the first three times to get pregnant even though the outcomes have not been good. I have been told that if I do become pregnant that I will have to have a cerclage put in around 12 weeks. I struggle with the what ifs of trying again and the increase risk of a PROM birth if we get pregnant again. I cherish my little boy but I hope for another child.