By Leisa Ruiter, Whakatane New Zealand
PROM at 15 weeks + 3 days. Delivery at 32 weeks + 2 days.
Story added: 2013-11-19

Wow what a great website. I had PROM 3 1/2 years ago and I could not find any information at that stage about it, which was really distressing. My waters broke at 15 weeks pregnant an I was advised by the obstrician in Greymouth Hospital that I should abort, the baby had no chance. I had to terminate in a bigger facility and luckily the specialist(amazing lady!) at the Christchurch Womens Hospital said with .5 of amniotic fluid there was a chance so I was laid up at home from then on, constantly loosing amniotic fluid. I had two young children which was difficult but a very supportive family and husband and we decided to let nature take it's course. I drank lots of water and took vitamin C every day(midwife's orders) but my obstetrician advised not to take antibiotics as it could mask an infection and they needed to know straight away if an infection developed, as it could be serious for me if this wasn't caught early. I took my temperature regularly. I had scans every two weeks and I went into hospital at 27 weeks. My fluid went down to .2 on the amniotic scale then .1 at one stage, which was very scary. I knew where her head was and she was breach so I would sleep on that side, hoping the amniotic fluid would pool around her face to let her lungs develop. The doctors were very good and all the way through tried to be realistic with us about the likelyhood of contracted limbs and her lungs not working. I thought i was in labour three times with lots of bleeding, but bub stayed in until 32 weeks. I had drugs to thin my blood as I could not exercise and when i went into labour it had been explained that I would be put under a general anesthetic as bub was breach and I needed to have a Cesar delivery. The labour was fast and intense 3 hours and i was ready to push, they put me out to it. Ruby arrived at 6pm and was worked on constantly by the staff at Christchurch Womens Neo-Natal unit. Her lung collapsed and she was struggling for life, at about 11.30 they said to prepare ourselves to say goodbye, they were going to try nitric gas as they only used it rarely they said not to hope for to much. We went to see her, it had worked, she started fighting again, they had sedated her and she was on about 15-20 medicines and machines. She came off them and slowly was able to breast feed was in the NICU unit for 1 month. She was on oxygen for the first 6 months she is now a normal 3 year old, no contractions in her limbs or problems breathing. Ruby is just a beautiful strong willed wee girl, our miracle. It was very very hard on the family being split up, but we're glad we made the choice to carry on with the pregnancy, we are very lucky she made it.