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.

This sounds very stressful for you. Having to keep hassling to receive care is stressful and difficult. I hope you get seen soon.

May I suggest something. While you are waiting for the doctor have a series of v specific questions to ask:
So I would ask:

1. Why am I in so much pain? What pain relief can I have? What if I am contracting without dilating? What are the consequences of that?
2. What should I do every time I bleed? Do I need to alert someone?
3. What is the general plan to manage him till delivery? My concerns are: a) I feel unwell b) I live v far from Hospital. Is it safe to go home after a PPROM? What precautions can I take?

Handholding cats.

Have been in hospital for various things over the years - birth and non-birth. When things are uncertain, unstable and scary, it's such an horrifically vulnerable place to be. And those waits. Lonely and frightening, even when you have someone with you.

Is your partner/mum there at the moment? Can they go and look for a Doc?

Sending positive thoughts

Kosha

Yes they said the reason I can't feel twin 1 is because he doesn't have waters. The reason we wanted the scan was because we wanted to know who's waters had gone, and how much. I seem to fill back up and leak every night. Consultant wanted to know how much was being lost. Last night they estimated 180mls of blood and fluid came out.

Its incredibly stressful.

Manage *me. There will be a MDT sometime in the week where they will discuss you. And presumably formulate a more concrete plan. I can tell you what I was told:

• that as long as you are well, and not in imminent danger of labour, going home is safe.
• there is no evidence that bedrest helps in PPROM but you can do that if you wish. But be aware of the DVT risk. Wear stockings and move often.
• if you are contracting without dilating (I was) and the foetal heartbeat is good then it is better for the babies not to be delivered. Every extra day, every extra 12 hours improves survival chances massively. (I was contracting so often that I almost stabbed the consultant at this point- in hindsight he was right though).

My partner is with me but he is asleep. He's not allowed out my room at night due to it being a mainly female ward and hes also been up since 3 so has just fallen asleep.

If I may say so, and don’t hate me, that information (whose waters have gone and how much) is in the grand scheme I reckon not that urgent to them and this is why you are low priority for a scan.

if you are contracting without dilating (I was) and the foetal heartbeat is good then it is better for the babies not to be delivered.

This is what I suspect is happening. They keep telling me the pains are Braxton hicks but I highly doubt that due to the intensity. I didn't dilate with my first baby either...

My other experience is that the night teams tend not to intervene unless critical. The NHS doesn’t like performing high risk surgery at night (and night shifts are often way more short staffed) so it might well be that you have to wait for the proper consultant in the day to get some clearer answers. Now at night you’ll probably get a more junior doctor.

The most painful "labor" I had in the 40 hours with ds (followed by emergency cs) and the 6 hours with dd (VBAC) was the first 30 hours with ds when they kept insisting that I was not labor because my cervix was not dilating. I don't give a flying f**k what they wanted to call it, I can tell you it was excruciating and the most painful thing I have experienced in my entire life. They tried ot give me a shot of pethidine (stupid idea in retrospect) and it didn't touch the pain. And I'm the person who has had all my dental work (including multiple crowns and an almost root canal) done without any anesthetic. And didn't take any of the pain pills after my cs and survived the anesthetic wearing off halfway through my foot surgery.

I wonder if they could give you an epidural. That's the only thing that gave me any relief.

I am so sorry about what you are experiencing.

I hope you have seen the doctor and been scanned. Thinking of you

I feel for you Op, it's awful when you feel like somethings wrong with your baby and nobody is listening 

Hope the doctor has been to see you now OP

They never came.

Just been woken up after two hours sleep. God I hate this. If it were any other reason for why I was here, I would go home.

Oh OP. I'm sorry no one has been to see you, you must be beside yourself. Keep buzzing them regularly and asking how long until someone comes.

You need to keep on them. And start a diary if each time you ask for something, what the response is, and how long it takes. Did you contact PALS?

Oh I’m so sorry for you. So stressful. Look how much support and kindness there is on this thread for you.

I just thought I’d mention that I had very similar braxton hicks with my third pregnancy. Very like real contractions; painful came and went. This went in for weeks. Honestly it was just like the real thing. It might be possible they are bh.

Xxxx

I would say that if you're that scared and panicky then call the midwife in for reassurance, especially if anything feels different or has changed.

I am so sorry to hear this. They must be having shift handover now and i hope you will see a doctor shortly on the morning rounds.

I hope you are ok and the babies have stayed put.

I agree with kosha that having some very specific questions will help you. Top of my list would be :
What should i expect when there is more fluid loss? Do you need to scan/doppler/other every time?

You are doing incredibly well, i hope you can get some more sleep today.

Keeping everything crossed for you here. Hopefully, you'll see a doctor soon, they'll be doing their morning rounds shortly.

The lack of resources is horrifying. It makes me so angry.

My mum and partner are speaking to PALS for me as I ended up so upset I didn't feel up to it myself. The pains are back. Will be buzzing them soon just trying to get to the loo first but I'm in agony.

Annie did they ever say why that happened? As in why they were so painful?

Gosh it sounds horrendous, I hope you get seen soon

You are doing so well OP, you kept those babies in for another day and you knew you needed to be in hospital and sorted it out. You are way stronger than you realise.

It's good that your mum and partner are speaking to PALS. Let them and PALS deal with how the hospital are treating you. Just focus on the babies and getting through hour by hour. Eat, drink, sleep. Sending hugs.

Just chipping in. I had PPROM too but was fortunate enough (I realise now) to be in the USA. I posted under Southsearocks back then. The approach was entirely different and I was on total bedrest for seven weeks and monitored every day, bloods every few days, scans once a week, consultant visit every morning, where we just shrugged shoulders at each other....

You sound absolutely terrified and my heart goes out to you. I found it reassuring to be able to listen to my baby's heartbeat several times a day and they showed me how to hook myself up for this - maybe they could do the same for you? And staff bought me gallons of drinks too. But it was bedrest, with a shower once a day.

Everything crossed for you 💐