By Kristin, Nashville, TN USA
PROM at 18 weeks + 2 days. Delivery at 20 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2015-04-17

This was my first pregnancy and it was relatively uneventful up until the 18th week. I had some nausea and fatigue but generally felt pretty good through the first trimester. Out NT scan and bloodwork came back with odds less than 10,000 for either down syndrome or the trisomys. We were two days away from our anatomy scan and looking forward to finding out the sex of our baby. Easter was the following weekend and we planned to share the news with our families then. Unfortunately, my water broke while I was at work just standing waiting for my next meeting. I felt a sensation like a bubble popping followed by a release of fluid. At first I thought I could have peed my pants, but as I walked toward the restroom, the fluid continued to soak my pants and shoes. Seeing how much fluid came out, I knew that it had to be amniotic fluid and was a very bad sign. I went to the ED and the ultrasound showed that there was barely 1cm of fluid but the baby's heartbeat was strong (although she was all curled up so we still didn't know the sex of the baby). We were sent to L&D and told that without fluid at 18 weeks, it was unlikely that the baby would survive and their recommendation was to induce labor. I was shocked and mortified by this suggestion and how quickly everything had changed. We spoke with another MFM doctor that day and chose to continue with expectant management. I put myself on bedrest, followed the PPROM vitamin regimen and drank about 4L of water each day while monitoring my temperature for infection. Over the next 2 weeks, we had 3 more ultrasounds and met with 3 different doctors. The first 2 continued to recommend induction due to the likelihood of a poor outcome and the risk to me of infection. The 3rd was surprising more supportive and gave us a 50/50 chance that we'd have a child who would survive. We chose to continue seeing this MFM doctor; however, we didn't make it to our next appointment. I went into labor Thursday night and ended up delivering our daughter on Friday afternoon. We had been hopeful that we'd be one of the miracle stories but unfortunately that wasn't the case for us. The two weeks of waiting was very stressful for me and my husband and put a strain on our marriage. My husband was worried about my well being and scared to have a child with extreme special needs. I saw my baby's heartbeat at each of those ultrasounds and just couldn't consider inducing, which to me, was giving up. While we didn't make it to viability and our daughter passed away during birth, I have peace knowing that I did everything that I could to try to save her. It is an impossibly difficult decision for any parent to have to make and each couple has to decide what it best for them.