By Loria, Toronto, Ontario Canada
PROM at 21 weeksDelivery at 21 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2007-09-20

On Aug. 31 I started feeling what I thought were contractions. I felt this weird tightening every few minutes but tried to ignore it and went to bed. The next morning, I did not feel anything so I went to work. In the evening, the contractions began again. My husband and I went to L&D. The resident on call said that I just had an irritable uterus due to either an UTI or my fibroid that was 9 cm at that time. She sent me home with antibiotics just in case I did have an UTI.

The antibiotics really caused me a lot of stomach pain and gas. I could not move around because of the pain. My husband took me back to L&D Sept.3. The doctor there said the baby was still doing fine and she didn't really know why I was feeling the pain I was feeling. At that point, I stopped feeling the contractions. She said to stay home from work until I saw my obstetrician Sept. 5. They still didn't have the culture results back yet from my urine so they said to stay on the antibiotics. I was basically in pain for the next 2 days. When I did see my obstetrician, she felt my fibroid was causing the pain. She wanting me to stop working and see her weekly for ultrasounds of my cervix even though it wasn't dilating.

I went home and 3 hours after seeing her, i felt a gush of fluid come out of me. It just kept coming and wouldn't stop. At this point I was 21 weeks and knew that this wasn't good for the baby. My parents took my back to L&D cause I couldn't get in touch with my husband. The doctors we saw that night told us that I had lost all the fluid around my baby and that I would most likely deliver him soon. My husband arrived and I told him the bad news. We were both so devastated. The next day, I saw my own obstetrician who was shocked that my water had broken. She referred us to a perinatologist who was the one I saw Sept. 3 who was also shocked my water had broken. They both reiterated the grim prognosis and also talked to us about inducing labour if contractions didn't start soon. My husband and I wanted to wait 2 days and have another ultrasound done to see if there was any fluid built up around the baby.

Unfortunately, that night, they took my off IV antibiotics and started giving them to me orally. Within 45 min., I started getting severe stomach pain again. They gave me morphine to stop the pain. Two hours later, I started to feel contractions. They lasted all night and into the morning. At 1:46pm on Sept. 7, I delivered Ryan who was 21 weeks 2 days old. His heart was still beating as we held him. We saw his chest heave and his arm and leg twitch. He lived for about 45 minutes. We were told that there was nothing they could do for him as his lungs were not mature enough. He was such a strong baby. I can't help feeling so guilty for his death. If my membrane hadn't ruptured so early, he would still be okay. I still cannot believe that things turned out this way.

Just wondering if others that had PROM previously gone on to have full-term pregnancies without any difficulties? We want to try again but I'm so scared this will happen again.