By Katherine Keleko,, England
PROM at 13 weeksDelivery at 25 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2007-09-06

I'm sharing my story as I know I scoured this site and the stories on it so many times whilst I was on bed rest looking for something to give me hope....

This was my first pregnancy, conceived the first time we tried, much to our surprise. I was 36 at the time, a little overweight and really thought it might take months.

At 12 weeks I was watching tv one night when I felt a trickle between my legs. I went to the bathroom to check and it was bright red blood. Of course I panicked, it wasn't exactly gushing out but there was quite a bit of it so we went to the hospital A&E. They seemed more concerned that my heart rate was through the roof (no surprise really), I hadn't had any cramping so were fairly relaxed and I was told that 'some women bleed during pregnancy'. However they did arrange for me to be seen at the early pregnancy unit for a scan 2 days later.

Along we went and they started the scan, I was terrified that they would find the baby had died. Instead the nurse said, 'hang on a minute, I think I can see two'.. I nearly fell on the floor...

By this stage the bleeding had stopped and I returned to work. I booked in with the midwife on the Saturday of my 13th week and went shopping afterwards. That evening I felt another trickle, I went to check and just saw some clear fluid in my knnickers. I put it down early pregnancy incontinence and thought nothing more of it.

For the next few weeks I had the occasional trickle, some with a bit more fluid than others and I took to wearing pantie liners. Christmas came and I went to my brothers. Over those few days I didn't have any leaks at all (maybe because I was taking a break from work). I returned to work in the new year and had my 20 week scan on the 17th January.

The sonographer scanned twin no.1 and found everything to be in order and said it was a girl. She then started on no.2, after a while she stopped and said she was going to ask a colleague to take a look. They told me that twin 2 had severely reduced fluid levels around it and that I should go to the Maternity Day Unit to see a doctor. We waited a long time to see a junior doctor who demonstrated his lack of bed-side mannor by telling us that we might loose one or both of the babies. He had no advice to offer and said I should go back to work. Well, I wasn't having any of it. I lived in London at the time and took one of the bounciest tube lines into work, it was quite uncomfortable bouncing into work and I thought this might contribute to the problems I was having. I decided to sign myself off work until my consultant appointment the next week.

So the next week I saw the consultant. He was great if not overly optamistic. He told me that the chances of twin 2 not surviving were high as this was the critical period for lung development, he'd seen babies born without lungs etc etc... He did say if this was a single pregnancy he might recommend termination but as I was carrying twins we should wait and see if I was happy to do that. There was no other option as far as I was concerned. So we agreed to wait.

I was given appointments with him every week, he did swabs, bloods and I had scans to measure the fluid levels. He agreed to formally sign me off work and I took myself to bed in an attempt to reduce the amount of leaking I had. I drank gallons of water in the hope this may help my baby produce more urine. Some weeks my fluid levels increased, one week I had no measurable fluid. I also took my temperature every day to check for sign of infection, I was on antibiotics as well. I was given steriods for the babies lungs at 24 weeks.

I spent 5 weeks in bed. We were moving house on the 26th of Feb - 100 miles away. I made arrangements from bed to see the doctor the day after our move to arrange my transfer to the new hospital.

On 18th Feb I had some bleeding in the evening so we went into hospital, I was told it was cervical erosion but I'm not convinced that it wasn't my cervix ripening.

On the 23rd February I woke feeling out of sorts and feeling like I had trapped wind in my stomach. The feeling didn't go away, I had my consultant appointment that afternoon so decided to mention it to him. By early afternoon I had some bleeding and pains around my tummy and lower back. As soon as I mentioned this I was admitted and told I may be going into labour. They did a scan and my husband told me he could see both babies, head down in my pelvis and ready to go.

I was transferred by emergency ambulance across London to a hospital that could cope with babies under 28 weeks and we were very lucky that they had 2 incubators free. Sophie and Isabel arrived 13 minutes apart at 2am after a very short and painkiller free (there wasn't time) labour. I heard Sophie cry. The room was full of paediatricians and they worked frantically on both of them before whisking them off to intensive care.

We were told that Sophie (twin 1) was fine, Isabel was giving them more cause for concern, her carbon dioxide levels were proving difficult to bring down. Both were on ventilators and had been given surfactant.

Two days later we moved house. I was now trying to express milk and transport it on the train down to London...

Gradually, very gradually the doctors worked their magic and both girls improved. They were taken off the ventilators and put onto c-pap. Sophie continued to improve very quicky and in total spent 10 weeks in hospital before coming home 5 weeks before her due date...

Isabel had to go back onto the ventilator and remained on it for 4 months. The doctors discovered she had a narrowed windpipe and she was transferred to a childrens hospital in London. Isabel had her windpipe stretched and slowly recovered. SHe was transferred to our local hospital 6 weeks ago and after a few ups and downs we are hoping she will be coming home to be with us and her sister on Sunday. 6 1/2 months after she was born.

It's been a long and hard road for us, emotionally and physically exhausting. Looking after one twin at home with the other in hospital so far away has torn us apart but we have survived and we know that Isabel won't remember her tough start in life.

I have really posted my story (our story) as I want you all to know there is always hope. Doctors are very quick to write you off but if you are lucky and get a good one like I did there is a chance things might work out. I prommed so early but never dramatically, I don't think my membranes ever re-sealed but I managed to carry 2 beautiful little girls for 12 weeks to the point where they had a chance of survival. Modern medicine did the rest.

If you are reading this because you have prommed then I wish you all the luck in the world, keep your feet up and keep on drinking that water...!!!

Kat