By Auburn, Bangor, Maine USA
PROM at 15 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 25 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2007-03-27

3:30 Saturday morning Jan. 13, 2007 i awoke from a dead sleep to several huge gushes of clear amniotic fluid. I ran to the bathroom and emptied my bladder before calling my OBGYN's office. I spoke to the answering service and my doctor called me right back. She had me meet her in the ER because i was to early at almost 16 weeks to be seen in OB triage. My doctor tried to assure me and calm my worst fears by telling me that in these cases it is usually just urine. As a senior year nursing student at 20 years of age with only my second pregnancy i knew that it was not urine. The nitrazine paper and the microscope fern test both came back negative and durring the sterile spec. exam there was no pooling of fluid in the vagina nor any gushes when she had me cough and i had not had any leaking since the original gushes. An ultrasound also showed "normal fluid". So i was sent home and told to return if i had any further problems. My doctor also told me of a case she had where a woman had a cyst on her cervix that had burst and they both thought that her membranes ruptured. So we returned home (6am) and both went back to sleep. My husband Chris got up around 8 am and headed off to work for the day as everything was "fine". Right after he left i got up to urinate and had 2 more significant gushes of fluid. I called my Doctor who wanted to see me again but wanted some more time to elapse so that we could see by ultradound if the fluid had decreased. We returned to the ER around 5 pm that night where the tests for amnio. fluid came back positive and there was decreased fluid on ultrasound. I was admitted for observation and 48 hrs of IV ampicillin and erythromycin (antibiotics) despite the fact that i had no signs of infection (normal wbc count and vaginal cultures). We were sent to Maternal Fetal Medicine and given all the grim statistics. We decided to continue on with the "conservative management" and give the baby a chance. I went home on bedrest which meant giving up my last semester of nursing school for the time and drank approx. 1 gallon of water a day along with tons of gatorade. I took 1 gm of vit. C to keep the urine acidic warding off a bladder infection, and probiotics/acidophilus to create an acidic vagina (keep infection away). I went for a weekly CBC to monitor for infection as well as weekly ultrasounds to monitor amniotic fluid index which never made it officially above 5cm. At 23 weeks i was admitted to Eastern Maine Medical Center as a high risk antepartum inpatient and was given betamethasone steroid shots. At 18, 22, and 24 weeks i was put in labor and delivery for monitoring of bleeding that they assumed was coming from a placental abruption that was not detected on ultrasound. Despite weekly ultrasounds we never learned the sex of the baby as i have a bicornuate uterus and the baby was breech, facing out, sitting over the cervix. Then on Thursday evening March 22, 2007 i came down with mild flu like symptoms. I thought that i was getting the Flu or a cold as i had been recently exposed. I also had some mild, vague uterine tenderness that the nurses and i attributed to stretching ligaments, lack of fluid, and a vigorous ultrasound that day. I was given Tylenol and Ambien and sent to bed. My husband stayed with me that night as i told him earlier "...don't go to far i have a feeling that things are going to be bad." The nurse asked me that night why i was so anxious and i told her that i thought that i was getting a uterine infection. She told me that i had anxiety and that she would knew if i had a uterine infection, however she called the doctor with my vital signs despite the fact that they were all within normal limits (even temp).I awoke around 2 am and could not get back to sleep due to sharp pains in the uterus and general, nagging discomfort, i had heartburn and felt nauseus so around 3 am i had a glass of milk and some saltine crackers. At 3:30am i involuntary vomited before i could make it to the bathroom and lost a large amout and blood and fluid at the same time wich soaked through everything. I began to shake and sweat and became very weak. They came in and put me on the monitor and the babies heartrate was at its baseline of 153 and i was not showing any contractions on the monitor despite the fact that i was feeling them. By 6 am i was moved over to labor & delivery in extreme pain and agony and was screaming for anyone to get me pain meds and that the contractions that were not registering were not giving my any break. The nurse in L&D immediately checked me and reported that i was fully dialated and that the babies arm and hand were already in the birth canal. The doctor on call walked in and checked me again and reported that i should just push and that it was too late for pain meds. I pushed 3 times before they stoped for a heart check on the baby, it was 135 and going strong so they decided that in order to save the baby they would perform a classical emergency c-section. Off to the OR i went alone still screaming for pain meds and for them to just put me to sleep. In the OR they told me that they would not put me under til the last second because it was best for the baby. I was prepped and put to sleep. Meanwhile they removed the baby alive and reported no steady heart rate while they worked on him with no avail for 15 minutes before bringing his little, pink, warm body to my husband. Samuel Aiden McDonald was born at 6:28 am weighing 1 lb 10.9 oz and was 12 1/2 inches long. I was moved to recovery where i stayed for approx 2 hrs. When i woke up my mom was there to inform me of the news, it was a boy and he did not make it. I was in agonizing pain, i later found out that they could not get the morphine pump to work. Around 9 am i was brought to my room and my family and the baby came in. He was already bathed and dressed by my husband and in a bassinet. I could hardly move and despite the extreme exhaustion and pain my family was able to hold him up for me. They took him again to take pictures, get prints, and complete paperwork. He was brought back to me where i was able to have him on my chest after thourghly examining him and i kept him for several hours. He had one severe club foot and the other was heading that way. Looking at his pictures know i can see that his chest was small in comparison to his abdomen, his nose was also a little squished. Other than that he was completely perfect and had a whole head full of reddish-brown hair. He looked nothing like his brother which we were surprised at. We plan a private family graveside tomarrow, he will be burried with his brother. The NICU doctor told us that the lack of fluid for so long caused his lungs to be hypoplastic (underdeveloped). The extreme prematurity (I was not due til July 4, 2007) and infection also worked heavily against him. Despite this grave outcome, i have nothing to regret, i know that i did everything possible to save his life, which meant giving up mine for a while. We are extremely saddened that he did not make it like others have, but at the same time we are relieved and i am anxious to get back to normal life. Full labor, a classical c-section, and 10 weeks of bedrest have made for a hell of a recovery, but we are getting there. I do not regret our decision to give him a chance, his life was worth every minute of agonizing pain and bedrest. We know that he is in Heaven with the Lord and his brother. --Chris & Auburn

P.S. My first pregnancy ended at 28 weeks on April 16, 2005 with the delivery (induction)of a stillborn baby boy named Levi Christopher who weighed 2 lbs 5 oz and was 16 inches long. His cause of death was a "cord accident". He also had several cardiac anomalies which would have needed surgical repair after birth. He would be two this July 15.