By Panagiotis, Cyprus
PROM at 22 weeks + 5 days. Delivery at 33 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2008-11-01

My wife's water broke on 16 February in week 22 of the pregnancy. We went to see the gynaecologist the next day who confirmed that Maria had to be admitted to the clinic immediately. We stayed 30 days in the clinic, after which we jointly decided with the gynaecologist to be transferred to the main maternity hospital in Cyprus with a NICU unit. This was for the good of the baby as there would be neonatal specialists on hand to immediately take care of the baby once he was born. The other option of staying at the clinic and rushing the baby across town by ambulance to the NICU unit once he was born was not an option for us as we felt this was too risky for the baby as precious time would be lost.

We were transferred to the hospital from the clinic by ambulance and the doctors assessed the situation telling us that it was dangerous given that the water had broken so early in pregnancy (in fact by the hospital's calculations the day the water broke would have been 22 weeks and 2 days and not 22 weeks and 5 days). Steroid injections were administered to Maria on admission to the hospital to strengthen the baby's lungs prior to birth.

Throughout the period at the clinic and the hospital the SDP measurement of amniotic fluid varied between 17mm and 41mm. At various points in time we were told it was dangerously low, but we kept hope even during these difficult times. It appeared that just enough fluid was being generated to replace that which was being lost to keep the level of fluid to the minimum amount that was required by the baby.

On 1 May around 9 p.m the contractions started and Maria was admitted into the labour theatre. Panagiotis was born at 12.40 a.m on 2 May weighing 1,610g. He needed to be put on CPAP briefly for 12 hours or so. He lost weight at first going down to 1,540g and then increased to 1,990g after which we were allowed to take him home. He is now 7kg and growing and developing like a normal baby. The only brief scare we had was an episode of apnea but this was a one-off incident.

My advice to anyone who is going through this is to get as much information as you can on PROM, read stories on this site which were a great source of strength for us, and keep your faith in God. Miracles do happen.