By Sarah Mcbride, Dudley Englands
PROM at 22 weeks + 4 days. Delivery at 27 weeks + 5 days.
Story added: 2009-08-17

I have an incompetant cervix, i've had 3 surgeries on it for precancerous cells and had already had a pprom pregnancy (http://www.kanalen.org/prom/stories.ph p?page=story&showid=889) so we knew i was high risk.

I ws exactly 22 weeks pregnant when I started getting pains in my cervix, I mentioned it to my consultant who sent me for a cervical length scan which showed my cervix was already funneling and short. I was scheduled for a rescue stitch which took place the next day. My surgeon had trouble getting the stitch in place and the surgery took a lot longer that it should have.. an hour instead of 10 minutes. I stayed in hospital for a day and the went home. The day after I could feel I had an infection brewing,I cant say how but I just knew. I had the same sensation that I had in the hours beore I pprom'd with my Daughter 4 years before. I went to the GP and told her my fears who basicially told me not to be so silly and that if I had an infection i'd be showing other symptoms etc, I took some reassurance from that and went home to bed.

At 2 am that night I went to the toilet and could hear my water had gone.. I KNEW what was going on and at 22 weeks knew the baby i was carrying had little chance of survival so I went back to bed and my fiance and had a good cry. We got up the next morning, took our daughter to nursery and went to the hospital where i was scanned and swabbed and put in the 'bad news' room.

That evening the consultant came to see me and told me the grim facts. We discussed funerals and and he asked me if I wanted to be induced although he said i'd go in to labour soon anyway. I decided against that, it had taken us 3 years to conceive the baby inside me, I wasn't going to let them take him like that.

After a few days of witing i was discharged, I was leaking constanly and on antibiotics and with instruction to go to the hospitl every oher day for monitoring and scans.

I managed to last 5 weeks on strict bed rest with no fluid.. My AFI was 0 on the scans. We were frequently reminded during that time that our son would be born with severly under developed lungs and would probably die. I had 2 infections found in swabs, a horible UTI and eventually Group B Strep. I took more antibiotics than you could shake a stick at.


On the morning on 31st December 2008 at 27+5 I heammoraged and was rushed in to have an emergency ceaserean section. It was found that I had had an placental abruption. My Son George was born weighing 2lb 2oz with his eyes open looking around and breathing for himself ! A true miracle.

We spent almost 10 weeks in Scbu and battled severe reflux,crashing desats, transfusions and apnoeas.

Our beautiful George is 7 and a half months now and still small ( 11lb!) but perfectly formed. We don't seem to have any lasting problems as as result of his prematurity, he didn't even need to come home on oxygen and i can vouch for the fact that his lungs work fine now! he's perfect. We have been so lucky.

Good luck to you if your in the same situaton as i was in.

Drs like to be doom and gloom but it can work out ok.

xxx