Hospital wants to send me home after PPROM. I don’t want to go. Help.

[CatsEye99]

Posting for traffic. My waters broke at home and were bright red, and I was 26 weeks with DCDA twins. I called an ambulance and was rushed to hospital where I had a huge gush of red fluid. I was counselled about preterm birth and given steroid injections. I saw a neonatal doctor who stated the most important thing was to deliver at a hospital with NICU cots.

Despite severe agonising pain, a week has passed and I haven’t given birth. Twins aren’t distressed and my observations are fine.

However I feel incredibly unwell. I keep burning hot and turning red but my temp is not raised. I feel like I have the flu or another illness. I have no energy and can barely move due to pain. Codeine won’t touch it. A midwife told me to have a hot bath which I am sure is contraindicated.

The staff want to send me home. I have stated I do not want to go home due to me living an hour from the hospital and the risk of infection, cord compression, preterm delivery and stillbirth. I do not want to lose my babies. I want to remain in the unit with NICU like the doctor advised.

Can anyone give me any advice? I can’t find any info on this anywhere and feel like the staff are fobbing me off.

Good news OP.
Best wishes and here’s hoping that pain settles.

Good news op I really hope that the pain settles and that the babies stay in for another month or two.

Not RTFT but absolutely agree you should be going nowhere right now! My waters broke at 36 weeks and they were against going home as every day brings an increased risk of infection. And especially as you are in pain, you really are in the right place for you and the babies. Good luck OP

Glad you’ve been heard. Hope they manage your pain and other symptoms.

A decent nurse or midwife has the skills to reassure a very anxious patient who is fit to be discharged but scared. Crap ones treat the patient like an idiot and a burden and panic patients more. Who does that benefit?

Op I'm glad you're not being discharged. Things don't sound right at all. Trust your gut; I'd be extremely reluctant to go in your shoes too. The pain alone sounds worrying.

I hope they get to the bottom of it or it goes away. Maternity care is dreadful (at worst) in this country.

Good news op

I am glad that someone is finally listening to you.

For those saying that you cannot simply refuse to leave hospital, I did precisely that. They weren't going to escort me off the premises with amniotic fluid flooding down my legs. They did eventually acknowledge that I was right to insist on staying. Doctors put me on antibiotics, I was monitored and scanned regularly, and when DD began discharging meconium within just 48 hours they were able to act quickly.

Great news OP, i hope this relieves some of the stress for now and you will get better communication from the hospital team from now on.

Did you manage to ask some questions that gave you reassurance and clarity on what is going to happen next?

Fingers crossed for you that the babies stay in for a while longer.

That is a good point Topseyt. I know someone who did similar, he basically said he would have to be escorted off the premises and that he would be consulting with his lawyers if they discharged him. (He was right of course, there was no way he should have been discharged.) I suspect that unfortunately it helps in such situations if you are articulate and middle class and able to sound polite and assertive rather than aggressive. Which is a tall order when vulnerable and in pain.

OP I'm horrified by what I am reading here. Please contact PALS as others have said. Also insist on having the bump monitored so that you know your two babies are ok. I'd would be saying you want it adding to your notes that you are in constant pain, losing fluid, have requested monitoring, refused discharge and are worried about Sepsis and contractions etc. Good luck xx

I'm glad a consultant has now-finally-stated he doesn't think you should be elsewhere whilst in pain. Forgive me for sounding thick, though, but why are they referring to 'pain' and what are they planning on doing to investigate it because to me it sounds like you're clearly in labour??
I was, although not with twins and low risk. I won't say what happened because I'll be accused of 'scaremongering' (everything was ultimately ok), people don't want to believe that women's pain is minimised, that they know their own bodies. That professionals don't listen. It can be soul destroying to be dismissed and fobbed off. I just want to say that I believe you, really.
I hope you get some respite from the pain really soon!

So pleased to hear you’ve spoken to the doc and they’re keeping you in. I hope you get some pain relief and manage a reasonable night’s sleep. Not surprised youre exhausted! X

I am so glad that you have managed to see a Doctor. A similar situation almost happened to me, although I was in hospital having gone into pre term labour, kept in on bed rest due to contractions starting whenever I mobilised. One morning, a registrar came in, told me that there was no reason for me to continue to be hospitalised and told me to advise my husband to collect me and take me home. In my case a thorough ward Sister, upon hearing this, immediately contacted my Consultant, who created Merry Hell and told the Registrar that I was to be hospitalised until my baby was born and under no circumstances was I to be discharged home.

You 100% did the right thing in demanding to see a Doctor before accepting their decision to discharge you. Trust your instincts OP, you are feeling very unwell, Sepsis can come on very suddenly so be sure to tell the midwives/ nurses/ Doctors of any new symptoms.

I hope that your husband is with you now and ready to be your advocate. If you don’t mind, I will pray for the waters surrounding your babies to replenish and for no infection to set in.

In my hospital it's 28 weeks to be on the monitor, I have to have blood transfusions but these can not be done until 28 weeks as they need to monitor the baby throughout. So from 16-28 weeks I'm left feeling like shit until I get the blood I need. So I wouldn't say it's a midwife just purposely being awkward.
Everything else sounds sadly normal, I went into labour at 31 weeks, doubled over in agony, heavy bleeding. It took them almost 4hrs to give me a paracetamol. I'd be in the hospital for 5hrs by that point.
I hope you're okay op

I'm glad you're staying in.
I hope things improve for you

@huttub
It doesn’t just work like that. The monitoring is not valid prior to 28 weeks especially on twins.
It’s like asking someone to take a photo of your arm to prove if it is it isn’t broken. It’s not going to show you anything helpful!

Glad to hear someone listened.

Wishing you a good stress-free night

Glad you’re being kept in but I imagine it’s dofficult for you to have much confidence in them now. Hope the morning brings better informed people and hopefully pals.

That’s a relief. I’m a twin mum and I did have a pretty straightforward pregnancy but there was a difference from having a singleton. I really feel for you OP I knew I wouldn’t be happy until they were out at the right time.

I've just read your thread and am relieved to hear that the doctor wants you to stay in while you're in pain.

I have been weighing up whether to say this because I don't want to worry you when you need not to be worried. However seeing as you already are and frankly I think you need to be armed with as much information as possible, I hope you don't mind if I share. I had a family member who died from sepsis. He wasn't displaying a temperature but was flushed and felt hot. He was also in a huge amount of pain that the doctors couldn't identify, but had him doubled over. In the end he was discharged and later collapsed on his way home. This was at one of the best hospitals in the SE. It was found at inquest that although his temperature wasn't alarming in single incidences, readings weren't being compared and had they been, they would have seen an alarming increase. So ask them to compare all of your readings. They probably are but it's best to check. I'm not saying you have sepsis - just that you should push to check that they have done a proper assessment for the possibility of sepsis. There is more training than there has ever been now, but people are still woefully inexperienced at dealing with it.

I hope that your doctor and midwives manage to get to the bottom of this. You are absolutely in the right place - please don't doubt yourself for a second. I also agree that PALS will be helpful here.

Glad you're staying in for now OP. It does sound like labour, if it is you're in the right place at the very least!

@babycatcher411. Thanks, there must be other ways to monitor. Ie. Scan etc though. That's what I was meaning. OP needs reassurance and I presume there's a way to do this.

Been keeping an eye on this thread and am glad you're being listened too.

So glad the doctor has agreed you should stay where you are for now and I hope you managed to get some rest.

Thanks everyone. Well I had further gushes of red liquid in the night and they're now scanning me again today. Doctor saw me again today and has said I am not going home.

It seems like I just had a really unhelpful staff member the last couple of days.