By Kerry Aiken, Grande Cache, Alberta Canada
PROM at 22 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 27 weeks + 3 days.
Story added: 2009-01-16

My husband Aaron and I were very happy to find out that we were expecting our first child on November 19, 2008. I was very nervous as this was my first pregnancy but other than some horrible all day sickness in the beginning my pregnancy went well. July was a great month, I felt fantastic and was enjoying my summer vacation (I am a Grade 7 teacher). On the evening on July 22, after a relaxing day, I was feeling pain in my lower back. The pain was coming about every 10 or 15 minutes so I called the health centre (we live in a small community with no actual hospital) and they told me to come in. After giving a urine sample (they were hoping it was just a bladder infection) I felt a gush of warm fluid. After testing it they were able to confirm that it was amniotic fluid. I will always remember that it was 10:15 pm, you don’t forget the moment when your world crashes down around you. The staff was great and you could see their heartbreak as they explained that my baby didn’t have much of a chance. They told me that in Canada, a baby is not considered viable until it reaches 24 weeks. I couldn’t understand that, I felt like they were just telling me they wouldn’t help my baby. I was airlifted to Edmonton (and thankfully my husband came too) where we waited until morning. After my ultrasound a Perinatologist and his resident came to tell my husband and I that our chances did not look good. They told us that even though the baby looked good and its heartbeat was good there wasn’t any fluid left and the baby needed it for its lungs to develop (and I needed it to prevent infection). Then they told us that we had a decision to make, let them take the baby and that would be it, or try to keep the baby and pray that I wouldn’t develop an infection (which could be life threatening) or go into labour. They said that since I was a couple of days short of 23 weeks that the baby wasn’t yet considered viable, 24 weeks is the magic number. They thought the baby might have a chance after that. They said that even if I went into labour (big chance of it happening within 7 days of water breaking) there was nothing they could do for my baby, that they would let us hold it, then take it away before 24 weeks. I have never heard anything more devastating in my life. Aaron and I felt very firm that we are not willing to let them take our baby, unless I developed an infection or went into labour we felt that baby still wanted to fight. After 3 days they sent me home for a week. Aaron, my mother and I drove the 480km back to my home town and I spent a terrified week there on bed rest. On August 1, I was admitted to the Royal Alexandra hospital in Edmonton. They told me that when labour happened it would happen fast and my baby needed to be taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit immediately. I had an ultrasound every week and each one showed that my baby was growing but there were not even pockets of fluid. Five weeks to the day after my water broke I started having horrible pains in my back. I knew my baby was coming but since it was back labour it wouldn’t register on the fetal heart monitor as contractions. When a resident checked me at 10:00 am she said, “labour is not imminent, this baby is not coming today.” Two and half hours later, when Tylenol 3s and Morphine didn’t help the pain they checked again. I was 8cm dilated and they could feel my baby’s bottom. After an emergency C-Section Elazer was born at 2:18pm. He weighed 1100 grams (2lbs, 7oz). The surfactant (Bless) didn’t work as they hoped so he was intubated and received nitric oxide for the first few days. They wouldn’t stop telling us how sick he was and they didn’t think he was going to make it. Then he turned around and was thriving. After being re- intubated for 5 days mid-September Elazer had acquired subglottic stenosis, essentially a scar in his airway from the endotracheal tube. He was still doing extremely well but on November 3 his airway collapsed from the stenosis, essentially the scar got bigger, and he was re-intubated and kept sedated for 22 days. In addition a brain ultrasound showed a small bleed that had already stopped. The Neonatologist said that since it wasn’t getting worse it should break up into his system and shouldn’t cause problems. His final ultrasound showed that his brain was normal. His doctor said that she couldn’t tell us if he would prefer blonds or red heads but his brain looked great. The day before his due date he had cricoid split surgery, they cut into his neck and cut into one of the two rings in his airway. They took cartilage from his thyroid area and grafted it into that ring. A week later they extubated him and when they weaned him off of his medication I had a wonderful, term baby! On December 19 (1 day short of 5 months since my water broke) we got to take our sweet baby home. Elazer was 16 weeks, 5 days old (4 weeks, 2 days corrected age) and he had spent every moment of that in the hospital. His discharge weight was 9lbs 12oz. I am writing this on our 28th day home and Elazer weighs 11lbs, 2 oz. Though he is currently on oxygen he is otherwise perfect! If you are in this situation please, do not give up hope! Even the most hopeless situation can turn around. Soon all of this will be a memory but I will always have my sweet baby!