By Katie, England United Kingdom
PROM at 17 weeks + 6 days. Delivery at 19 weeks.
Story added: 2007-08-27

Background: I'm 43 and still childless, despite trying for a baby for most of the last 10 years. All 3 of my pregnancies have been lost to miscarriage - the first (3 yrs ago), at 7 weeks, the second (thru IVF) last year to pre-term PROM at 20 weeks, and the third (again thru IVF) to pre-term PROM at 18 weeks - just last week (Aug 07).

Like the last, this pregnancy proceeded COMPLETELY NORMALLY until 17 weeks and 6 days, when my waters burst suddenly as I sat up in bed in the middle of the night, giving a little push to what I thought was just wind, only to hear and feel the sickening thud of the amniotic sac bursting, and all fluid being lost in one gush. Although I didn't think there was any warning sign, with hindsight I now realise I had slightly increased watery, milky vaginal discharge for a couple of days before the sac ruptured.

On arrival at hospital, my cervix was closed, I had no signs of infection, and ultrasound showed that, agonisingly, my baby was still strong and healthy, but no amniotic fluid whatsoever remained. We were just devastated, but could not bear to end our pregnancy that night - despite being advised the outlook for our baby was really, really grim.

So we went home, and I then lay on my back for a week, on antibiotics, feeling my baby move, praying that the sac would re-seal, but it didn't, and nearly every time I got up, a little more fluid was lost. On the 7th day after PPROM, as I stepped into the shower, I felt something big come down into my vagina. It was the umbilical cord, which had prolapsed. I screamed and screamed as I felt my baby convulse, then become still.

On arrival at hospital they confirmed the baby had died due to cord prolapse, and this had happened because the cervix had dilated to 1 cm. The birth was then induced. My little Angel was still-born later that evening. After the birth, like last time, the placenta was retained, it had to be manually removed under general anaesthetic in theatre.

When we experienced PPROM for the first time last year, they could not explain why it happened, but advised usit was unlikely to be a cervix or infective cause. Now we have experienced PPROM twice, we are just ***desperate*** to know why. It would seem likely to me that there must be some consistent, (but as yet unidentified) medical reason behind our PPROM, given both have occurred at exactly the same point in the pregnancies..and that this would suggest my risk of repeat in any subsequent pregnancy might be as high as 100%??

I have tried to write unemotionally, but I am just absolutely beyond devastated to have lost all our babies to miscarriage. I cannot bear to face being childless either, but it is difficult to know how to proceed from here and time is fast running out, and we do not have any medical answers on which to base decisions.

If anyone reading this is involved in medical research into the causes of repeat PPROM, please contact me via this site's administrator.

Thanks for reading this.