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.

Ah I see, sorry, I thought that arrrgh was a cry of frustration, sorry

Schuylier- do you not think feeling as a patient that your concerns are not being addressed is not something to be worri d about? Very often the issue in hospital related complaints is related to how the information is passed on.

Is this a London hospital ?

Schuyler - no and as I said I know nothing of this. However I found advice on the midwifery.org site and others stating not to have a bath so I find it a bit worrying the midwife claimed she’d never heard of it. If she’d said that was the old rules etc I think that may be different.

Anyway my advice has always been to speak to pals. I think the op needs an advocate and someone to speak up for her. The midwife who essentially asked the op to self triage is completely out of line and I don’t blame the op losing faith in her care.

Abitlost I’m unclear as to if you read my post! I very clearly said OP needs support on here to ask questions and to advocate for herself but not to be given medical advice from strangers who don’t know her medical history. I also specifically said she should not be receiving sub standard care.

I really dislike scaring anxious people. I think we should empower them to stand up for themselves and feel confident to do so and remember there are actual humans at the end of the keyboard.

Can you start using maternity pads now to get a better idea of what's coming out and the colour? So sorry you are going through this and aren't getting much support. Fingers crossed you are seen and listened too soon

Wonder if you could have a UTI. I’ve had pain like that in pregnancy and was a uti, which might also cover the white blood cells? Have you had a recent test of urine sample?

New guidelines at my local hospital is no CTG monitoring until 28 weeks

Fishes even if you are potentially in labour?!!!

OP I don't know where you are but it sounds horrendous. Have you thought about naming and shaming? I wouldn't worry about outing yourself because you've been quite specific so far and could just name change later. The lack of care is quite astounding.

Nope!! Got it wrong - 24 weeks!

"remember there are actual humans at the end of the keyboard."

Well yes, otherwise why would we be replying?! Op needs confidence to know she is NOT being a drama queen, and that doesn't come from people saying 'i'm sure the midwives know best'.

You can't just refuse to leave the hospital. The security or police will escort you out. If they decide you need to definitely be discharged, refusing to leave will get you no where.

I hope you see a consultant soon OP and feel more reassured and listened too. If the consultant says he/she thinks you are fit for discharge will you believe them?

I don't think your care has been great at all by the way, but it might be that you clinically don't need to be in. I hope you get more answers soon, but it is very likely the consultant will agree with a discharge too.

I bet the OP is a lot more anxious after reading some of these replies.

JessieLemon nowhere has the OP said that she thinks this is an unusual event. You are quoting someone else who made a similar extrapolation. Only now you have taken it further and said "who told you it is an extremely rare event. ".
She didn't say that

Actually yes the op did say exactly that!

Feeling for you OP.

My best guess is that as you’ve not shown any signs of going into labour your risks of infection are lessened by being at home,

I think you need to ask them WHY they want to discharge you. They won’t be just sending you home because they need the bed IF they feel you truly need it but it sounds like they haven’t explained things at all. And it also sounds as though you’ve had so much conflicting advice that it’s hard to know who to trust,

As an ex-Midwife I know confusing information can get, ideally you need PALS and the consultant to fully explain why it’s bwen agreed to discharge you.

Catseye99, I’ve just been reading the entire thread . I was a midwife for years but don’t work in a maternity unit any more .
It sounds to me like you’re in labour . I’m hoping by now that you have received the attention that you deserving . I don’t understand why you would have been told that it’s too early to put you on a monitor .
I hope you’re ok

I really don't feel that you have been listened to OP. It may well be that it is safe for you to go home, but no-one seems to have listened to your fears and concerns and explained why the professionals feel it is safe for you to be discharged.

It's really bad patient care for someone who is anxious and has unexplained symptoms (discharge, pain, elevated BP) not to be put fully in the picture about WHY these things are not a risk to you or your babies.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through this.

My hospital policy is no CTG before 28 weeks because they cannot be properly interpreted prior to that so are pointless and in fact potentially harmful - because you don't know what normal is for that gestation, problems could be missed or they could jump in and deliver a baby severely prematurely unnecessarily. They were never designed to be used so early. Also it would be physically incredibly difficult to actually use it on 26 week twins.

I don't know why people are saying inaccurate things to scare this op.

She has absolutely not been treated well and not listened to - however there is no evidence at all to suggest she has not received good care. As several posters have said, we don't know the full clinical picture here at all.

However I still believe that I would refuse to leave if I Was feeling as anxious as op is (and I think I Would be feeling every bit as anxious as she is) - until the pain and feeling crappy settles. If she went home now, how would she know if she was becoming septic when she already feels so unwell? How will she know her babies are ok when she isn't really feeling movement? How can she monitor the colour of the liquor when it is already red/brown stained? She has no way of monitoring her and her baby's wellbeing, so I would want to stay too. If the pain settles, then I would go home.

Hi everyone. Too exhausted to reply to every comment and still in pain but finally seen Dr who said there is no way he wants me discharged while I'm in pain.

@JessieLemon - how does it work then, if a patient in the OP's position - heavily pregnant, in pain, with PPROM, in great distress, simply refuses to get up off the bed until she is given adequate reassurance/treatment? Would they have security manhandle her out of the building? Push her into a sideroom and ignore her? Of course it works like that because there is simply no other way it could work.

Well that's good news that you're not being discharged.

Great news op. Fingers crossed you get more responsive care from now on.

Great news OP. Hope this is the turning point and they can help manage or at least diagnose the cause of your pain.

Good news. I hope things go better there from now on OP.

I'm glad your finally being listened to. It's shocking that if they had their way you would have already had pulled yourself out of that bed and left hospital.

I can bet a lot of women aren't confident enough to stand up for themselves and this has repercussions. You know your own body. I hope you can try have some sleep and that atleast your mind can be a tiny bit less stressed now.