By Kathryn, Hong Kong Hong Kong SARI thought I was going to have the perfect pregnancy. I was 30 years old, and we got pregnant the very first month we started trying. We were having so much fun talking about names and plans and telling our friends and family one at a time. I'm a vegetarian, I work out regularly, and we eat really healthily. In other words, I was very smug and thought everything was going to be perfect.
PROM at 21 weeks + 1 days. Delivery at 39 weeks + 1 days.
Story added: 2010-12-16
All of that came to an end when we attended a 21-week checkup and was diagnosed with an extremely low AFI (2.5) after having a PROM. We were terrified. I just remember sitting in that chair in the doctor's office, thinking, "Cry quietly, the doctor has seen all this before." I went home and lay down and stayed horizontal all weekend. It was awful. I called my parents and they were out for dinner, but just from the tone of my voice (I tried to lie and say everything was fine) they packed up the food and went straight home to call me back. My husband and I just sat numbly staring at each other all weekend.
When we went back on Monday, my AFI was up to around 6, but still not very good. The doctor sent me for a second opinion with another specialist. This one was more blunt, and I had to go by myself; when I asked him, "Will the baby survive?" he responded, "Well, I am not recommending termination today." I was stunned that that had ever been on the table and went home feeling even sadder and more scared. At this point I was laying down in the taxi, waiting rooms, everywhere, so that I could avoid ever being vertical. I'm a teacher and I was also spending hours per day writing lesson plans and filming instructional videos for the sub in order to try to maintain some consistency in the lessons. All of this was done laying on my side.
I didn't go back to work for months. I stayed on bedrest almost the whole time (13.5 weeks on bedrest), and my husband and I kept careful track ..... if we can make it to Thursday, she'll probably have working lungs ... if we can make it to next Thursday, there's a good chance she won't need a respirator .... we had a little celebration every week, and especially every time my AFI was higher or approaching normal, and even every day we talked about how we were one day closer to our goal of a full-term baby. I used to sing songs to her, mostly along the lines of "Stay in there, you're fine in there, stay inside and grow, it's warm and cozy, just stay in there, don't come out...." It sounds crazy, but trust me, you start to feel a little crazy when you lay down all the time. You also find yourself obsessing about how long it's been since you've lost any fluid and whether it's possible that the "leak" has been healed. Luckily, we have an amazing community of co-workers, friends, and neighbours, and people brought meals, cleaned the house, visited me, sent me emails and funny videos, brought me yarn to crochet with .... basically everything they could think of to help.
Finally, at 34.5 weeks, the doctor said, "You're clear! Either you're going to have this baby early or not, but she's fine, fine, fine, so get off the couch since you've been going crazy with worry!" It was wonderful to get back to my students, teach a bit, work a bit, and see what the world outside my house looked like. I had even gone to a staff party the previous week and laid down on the bleachers the whole time.
I didn't go into labour until the day before the 39 week mark. We were coming down the stairs from the store and I said "I think I'm having a contraction!" and my husband looked at me very sharply, and the pain was suddenly so strong that when he talked I just looked at him and said "Shhhhh...." and then afterwards we laughed and laughed about it.
That was Wednesday and I had a long and pretty awful labour. I was monitored for much of Thursday, and they were very concerned because I was still leaking fluid (I never stopped losing amniotic fluid throughout the whole pregnancy). They finally induced on Friday afternoon since they were worried, mostly because of the original PROM, and because the baby's heartbeat was not what they wanted to hear. I went through the induction with no epidural, which was by my choice but still horrible, but when our beautiful, gorgeous, completely healthy baby daughter was born, it was 100% worth it and I would do it all again twice -- the worry, the terror, the bedrest, the labour, everything -- in order to have what we have: a beautiful, healthy, hilarious, developmentally normal baby.
We are way beyond thankful and just wake up every morning looking at each other in awe that we have such a beautiful child in our home. PROM was awful but we managed to survive and our darling baby girl did too! If you are reading this because you've had PROM at 21 weeks (I trawled this board obsessively), please know that it's possible for you to have a healthy normal pregnancy. I wish someone had said that to me ... just so I could have had a shred of hope. Now I have nothing but gratitude for my amazing baby girl!!!