I have had 2 children before my Pprom miracle, both pregnancies standard really, although my second pregnancy I did have Group B strep - I sent off for a private test for this as it is not tested for as standard on the NHS.

 

Firstly, I had a midwife appoint just before Xmas and I told her I thought I had a water infection, they did a wee test but I didn't hear the results so I had to chase them but they said it was clear and if I was still worried to make docs appoint.  I was sure I had a water infection but with it being Xmas there wasn't much I could do so after xmas i rang docs and got an appointment, this was for the 10.1.12.  I did a sample and the doc confirmed I did have a water infection.

 

My waters broke on 15.1.12, I was 21 + 6 - I didn't experience my waters breaking with either of my other 2 pregnancies, but I felt I was leaking down below and as I got up it gushed as I was running to the downstairs toilet and I just knew what had happened. I was filled with fear, I just thought I was going to lose the baby.  I went to the hospital, they examined me with a speculum and confirmed my waters had gone.  The doc I saw (we later nicknamed her doctor doom!) told me that I would more than likey go into labour in the next 24-48hrs, 80% chance of labour in first 2 weeks of losing waters and as I was under 24 weeks there was nothing they would do and I was admitted. (One thing to note, I had an issue with my dates at my 12 week scan and they pushed my dates back even though I was certain of my dates, at the time it didn't really matter but all of a sudden when the date is so crucial as to weather they might try to save your baby this becomes everything and I remember thinking that i would argue about my dates if it came to it.)

 

I was kept in hospital for 5 days, constantly leaking.  I was put on antibiotics. As I didn't go into labour like they first thought I was discharged as they said there was nothing more they could do for me and really it was just a waiting game.  They told me about watching for sign of infection, taking my temp twice a day, no heavy lifiting but apart from that I could carry on life as normal. I also had to have bloods done twice a week. I didn't know what to think or do - to be honest it felt like the docs didn't really know a lot about this either and the inpression I was getting was that there really was no hope.

 

I'm the type of person that like to know exactly whats going on so I started doing my own research online when I got home, I found a couple of web pages with lots of info that I wrote down, then I came across the FB pages, and I saw a lot of ladies, esp in America were on bedrest so I looked into this further.  I spoke with my husband and we agreed that we wanted to do whatever we could to save this pregnancy and i felt I would never forgive myself if i hadn't tried whatever i could, even though we knew this would be hard as we had a 2 children age 6 & 3 at the time.  So I put myself on bedrest at home. i would get up, get showered and dressed then go downstairs and lay on the sofa all day long, apart from getting up for a wee, which we had a downstairs toilet for. I drank as much water as i could, i drank Actimel to replace the good bacteria (nurse told me this in hospital), took my temp twice a day, avoided caffein or choc, did whatever i could to avoid infection. Luckily a neighbour was a midwife so she came in and did my bloods for me to save me having to go to the hospital twice a week. I had hospital appoints every 2 weeks where i would see a consultant and have a scan.  My consultant was amazing, but even he said to me that bedrest wouldn't make any difference!

 

I stayed at home on bedrest for approx 6 weeks, it was a really hard, lonely and depressing time. On 28.2.12 I went to the loo and when I wiped there was blood. My neigbour the midwife said we needed to get to hospital (I was 28 + 1).  I was monitored on the delivery unit but then taken to a ward as the bleeding eased off., and this was a pattern that continued to happened, I had mixed messages from docs, some saying as soon as the bleeding stopped I could go home, others saying I was there until I gave birth, they wanted me to get to 34 weeks. I kept having a heavy bleed and then it would go pink, every time I was moved to delivery then back to the ward (by then I had my own room!)  The last occasion I had a heavy bleed, was monitored all night long, and i actually told my husband not to worry about rushing down as I was sure it would be like all the other times and I would just get moved back to my room, but this time a different doc saw me and he advised that I should have c-section straight away, although it was my decision. I was scared and just wanted to keep my baby inside for as long as possible and as this was something that had kept happening I was in 2 minds what to do. The midwife said to me he was a good doc and to listen to him so I agreed and was prepared for an emergency c-section asap that morning.  That was an awful experience as I had a spinal which didn't work!  I had my little girl at 30 + 5, she weighed 3lb 8oz (I have big babies, my others being 8lb 11oz & 9lb 8oz, they said she would have been about 10lb had i gone to term!)  After the delivery they told me half my placenta had broken away and the other half was in a bad state was starting to break away and it probably wouldn't have lasted much longer so it was a good call that the doc made otherwise it probably would have been an awful outcome for our lo.

 

She was in hospital for 6 weeks and came home 30.4.12, I would have been 37 weeks pregnant.  She had a few issues and set backs while she was in hospital but as far as we can tell and from tests we have had done since there is no long term issues due to Pprom.

 

I did speak to a midwife liason lady while i was in hospital, no one could give me a reason for my waters breaking but I did mention to her about the water infection that i had and she said it was a possible cause because if my bladder was inflamed it could have rubbed on the sac and caused it to burst.

 

Going back to the pregnancy, I would say one of the main discrepacies in my care was that I had 2 consultants who had differing opinions on steroids.  1 wanted me to have them at 24 weeks, the other wanted me to hold off as he said they only worked for a certain amount of time and then wore off - I wasn't offered or given a booster just before the c-section and my lo's consultant said if i had had a booster shot she wouldn't have had the problems with her lungs that she had when she was born.  I had the steroids at 26weeks.