By Tedi, UK
PROM at 33 weeks + 4 days. Delivery at 33 weeks + 4 days.
Story added: 2004-01-26

I had a wonderful pregnancy with tons of energy, no morning sickness, no problems at all. My blood pressure 1 week before my PROM was the same as at 8 weeks. At my 32 week check-up the midwife said that my baby had already turned and that I might have him a little early. She did not say just how early and did not seem concerned.

I was out shopping on the day I had my PROM and it felt as if I would never stop gushing. When we finally made it to the hospital I had felt a total of 2 contractions. The doctor's were considering trying to stop labor to administer the drug to induce surfactant. When I had an internal exam the nurse thought that I had a prolapsed cord. Everyone started running around preparing for an emergency c-section. After the surgeon arrived he did another internal and realized that the "soft part" that the nurse felt was not the cord but my baby's bottom. He had turned around while I was laying on the bed being montored earlier. They decided to do a c-section any way and my beautiful boy was born at 33 weeks and 4 days. He weighed 5 pounds and looked exactly like his daddy.

He spent 1 week in the incubator and two weeks in the "going home" room of the Special Care baby unit as he wasn't in any big hurry to learn how to breastfeed. Other than slightly immature lungs and a case of mild jaundice (that lasted quite a while) he was a fit baby. They ran all of the usual tests ie strep infection and the like and was never able to decipher just why I went into premature labor. For this reason my husband and I are very leery of having another baby because although it was fine in the end, it was extrememly stressful.

My boy is now 20 months old and has a huge personality. You would never know he was premature to look at him. He is developmentally on target and we love him more than life itself. I now voulunteer with the parents support group at the local Special Care Baby Unit and hope that if I am called upon, I can help someone just like me to get through the rough spots.