By Laura, Lancashire UK
PROM at 16 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 20 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2010-01-29

I woke up on a Thursday morning (15 wks + 6) everything felt normal but when I went to the bathroom I found I'd had a heavy bleed this seemed to have stopped but then about an hour later I returned to the bathroom to notice the toilet bowled filled with blood once again. My husband rushed me to A&E at the local hospital. They tried a few times but couldn't find a heart beat using the doppler, I was told this wasn't unusual at such an early stage of pregnancy but was still scared even though I still had no pain and the bleeding has stopped again. I was scanned and relieved to see that all was ok. Blood tests and swabs were taken all came back clear and I was told I could return home and to take things easy.

The following Sunday (16wks + 2) I was in the kitchen when I felt a small gush of warm fluid, convinced I was bleeding again I ran upstairs but there was no blood, about 10 mins later the same thing happened. I phoned the hospital who told me to put on a pad and call again if things got any worse. I lied on the sofa for the rest of the day, things didn't get worse I was in no pain, no bleeding but kept losing slight trickles of fluid. At this stage I had never heard of PROM so I wasn't too worried, but that night I said to my husband that I had a feeling something was wrong and we went back to the hospital.

That evening the doctors confirmed that I was leaking amniotic fluid but my cervix was still closed and there were no signs of labour. I was kept in hospital overnight and put on a course of antibiotics, then scanned the next day to be shown just 2 small pools of fluid remained but the heartbeat was strong. After 2 more nights in hospital the implications of PROM were explained to me, I was offered a termination, or told I could wait and see what happened.

I returned home but was to continue to take the antibiotics and check my temperature 4 times each day. I also had to return to hospital each week for blood tests, blood pressure and swabs to be taken and to be scanned every fortnight.

I was told just to take it easy, but decided myself to stay in bed as much as possible, I also drank as much fluid as I could after reading online that some people had been advised to do this. 2 weeks later we went for the next scan, hoping to see more fluid around the baby - but now there was none at all but the heartbeat was still strong.

At 19 wks + 6 we went for the 'anomaly' scan, but there was so little fluid it was hard for the doctor to see everything. The heart was strong, the baby was moving and was measuring correctly. We were told that everything that could be seen looked to be fine.

At exactly 20 wks I started to bleed again, still with no pain and not as heavy as earlier in the pregnancy. We returned to the hospital I was told the blood was coming from an abrasion on the cervix not from the pregnancy which was good, I put it down to the swab that had been taken the day before. I was kept 2 days for observation.

Again on returning home I stayed in bed as much as possible, I didn't really have any energy to do anything. I got up in the afternoon to take a shower and was devastated to find the cord had prolapsed. Luckily my husband was home with me and called the ambulance. I knew by this stage there was no hope for our baby, we just lay on the bed and cried until the ambulance arrived.

We were taken directly to the delivery suite, the doctor confirmed the baby could not tolerate a prolapse and they would have to deliver asap to prevent me getting an infection. I was given 2 tablets to start the labour, and morphine as pain relief. The labour lasted just over 1.5 hours and our beautiful daughter was born sleeping. She was tiny but perfectly formed, she looked just like her Daddy.

My thoughts and prayers are with anyone reading this who is going through a PROM pregnancy. I hope that your story turns out to be green - never give up hope.