I am likely to need to end this pregnancy over the next few weeks due to very early and complete rupture of membranes.

[Methe]

Basically, I am 15+4 and on Friday at 14+5 my waters went just after having a laparoscopic cervical cerclage placed due to cervical incompetence. There is no fluid around the baby at all and although we are hoping for a miracle this is, realistically, unlikely to change. Without fluid the babys lungs will not develop and there is a likely hood of limb deformity not to mention prematurity an the risks this poses to my body.

I have had several scans and the baby is alive, I can hear it with my doppler and feel it from time to time too. The baby also appeared absolutely perfect :( I had been so excited about this pregnancy and am gutted beyond words that I am going through this again. My previous pregnancies we're both cut short by prom, at 30 and 22 weeks although thankfully both of by children are ok, despite being born prematurely. I have also had 4 miscarriages.

I just can't get it straight in my mind what is likely to happen. There is the (slim) possibility of the membranes resealing and the water re accumulating and as such we have decided to wait 3 weeks and see what happens. If after 3 weeks there is not an improvement in the amount of fluid then we have no option but to remove the stitch and induce labour. We are living in limbo :(

When you end a pregnancy at 17/18 weeks, what happens?

(I had a PROM in my 2nd pregnancy too, but much later & the baby was fine. I don't have cervical problems but a clotting disorder, with the early PROM I had a huge clot next to the sac which we were warned could weaken the membranes & lead to a PROM)

Going, that sounds awful :( you must have had to really steel yourself to try again and how amazing that you managed to get to term without a stitch. I feel really guilty that I really pushed for this stitch, it's not a very common procedure and now i'll always wonder if it would have been ok if I had just left well alone, or maybe tried just taking progesterone..I guess I will never know.

Diogenidea, thank you for taking the time to reply and I am sorry for your losses :( I have a feeling the baby I am carrying is a boy too, I've been thinking about names.

I didn't realise that clotting disorders could cause prom.

Methe - I know it's no good saying 'don't feel guilty' - but you've nothng to reproach yourself with. It can never be known what would or wouldn't happen, you can only know why you pushed for it - because you know your cervix is problematic and you've had premature deliveries before. No doctor would do that procedure unless they agree it was medically justified. Had you not had it and then your waters had gone you'd be bashing yourself over the head that you should have pushed for the stitch. What I'm saying is that in this desperate situation, you couldn't win really because no option was low risk. Praying for a miracle for you and your baby.

Thank you Northern :) I know you are right. Life can really suck sometimes, can't it.

Boris, we didn't have to fill in a form in order to have a PM. Wonder if different trusts work in different ways.

Goingtoofast, i'm so glad, it was an absolute bloody nightmare trying to get through pages of the bloody stuff. Hopefully it is unusual, then, and doesn't have to happen. Slightly :( we had to do this if not legally necessary.

I'm sorry Methe. I had an induced labour at 17.3 weeks with a baby that had died only 36 hours previously due to PPROM. It was a pessary induction on labour ward. I didn't use any pain relief, delivered the baby myself and was able to see him, but touching/holding was nearly impossible. I saw him for about 10 minutes then they took him and put him in the fridge in case we wanted to see him later, but we didn't. I had no trouble with the placenta, it just plopped out when the MW was out of the room. We spent the night in the 'loss' room and.then went home. We had a PM which didn't show anything wrong with the baby or placenta, ust that he died of infection following PPROM. We didn't have any service or recognition for him, just left him at the hospital, which was the right decision for us.

I hope this helps a bit to illuminate the unknown but I'm sorry you're going through this.

That's interesting about the placenta Boris. Noone ever said anything to me about erpc being even a possibility, and I had no problems with it. The post mortem form we filled out was very comprehensive but it didn't bother me at all, things like that don't really, but I know I might be in a minority. The things I found interesting was it's the same form from 14 weeks of pregnancy to a child of 17 years 364 days of age. So there's a lot of irrelevant stuff I imagine. It took 14 weeks for us to get the PM results, by the time they came in I was already pregnant again.

I've just had another scan and the baby is still alive but has no fluid and it squashed in a tiny ball. I've stopped being able to feel it move now, I suppose it can't :(

We are just waiting to see a consultant. I'm going to ask them to take the stitch out and induce me I think. I'm so sad :(

I am so sorry for you Methe. Be strong.

Methe, I am so very sorry that you're having to go through this, it's heartbreaking. I will still hope and pray for a miracle for you and your baby.

The plan is to remove the stitch laparoscopically tomorrow and wait and see what happens. My consultant thinks that it might be enough to put me in to labour without being induced. It's not safe to leave the stitch in incase I get an infection.

Oh, Methe! > It's not fair, is it?

It's not fair, I don't deserve this :( all I wanted was one normal pregnancy I could enjoy, a birth resulting in a baby I could hold and sniff and show off. 3 pregnancies and 3 awful experiences :(

Never give up hope. {{hug}}

Methe, thinking about you today xx

Dear Methe, so sorry to read this, sending you best wishes and huge hugs. Take care.

Oh Methe it is so so awful seeing a baby in trouble on a scan, I remember having to be pretty well held down in my 18 wk scan as all I wanted to do was cover my ears and curl up into a ball.

I went into labour naturally at around that time, as you may remember my baby died after a week of no waters, she was alive at least until the Friday then when I went into labour on Sat night she had already died. The contractions stopped though so labour was restarted with misoprostol (sp) pessary. I was in quite a lot of pain so had oral morphine pretty frequently. I am glad I did as it made the whole thing dreamlike, and afterwards I felt some degree of relief that the horror and anxiety of the previous week was over.

I did have a retained placenta which was manually removed, it is very very common that the placenta will be retained and most are removed surgically, mine near the cervix so they did a bit of James Herriot - grim but it really annoyed me that they hadn't told me I might need surgery before. My point was that they make you give birth knowing you may well need ERPC afterwards, why don't they just remove the baby surgically? But afterwards I was glad I 'gave birth' as it was the last thing I could do for her.

Unfortunately I lost a great deal of blood and had to have a transfusion, I was also on IV antibiotics due to chorioamnionitis. I stayed in for almost a week, during which I signed the PM. The hospital staff took pictures of the baby and several copies of hand and footprints which was lovely

PM took a while and I attended a funeral organised by the hospital just for my baby 6 weeks later. I was also given the baby's ashes to keep, I am told sometimes there are no ashes but my baby was in a fairly hefty wooden coffin.

All this is probably quite horrible to read and I am so sorry, but I would have found it helpful to know a bit beforehand about what is likely to happen, I had hoped it could all be like an early miscarriage but my feelings were not like that at all.

Feel free to PM me if I can help with any more info. As I said before I am hoping that your baby will be one of the lucky ones.

I had the stitch taken out yesterday, the surgery went well and I'm in a lot less pain than I was after the first opp which is a relief, they've been giving me lots of codiene which has just basically knocked me out.. I'm not complaining. They managed to bash my bladder a bit during the op and I'm having trouble weeing so I'm still in and waiting for a scan to see if I'm retaining urine and if not I think I'll be going home this afternoon.. I don't actually know what will happen if I am?

They have also decided to test me for clotting problems - lupus anticoagulant/thrombophillia and something else, I forget. The lab is closed for Easter now though so will have to be next week.

The bereavement midwife came to see me yesterday and was really nice, she gave me loads of info about what's likely to happen. Before/during/after the baby's delivery and I feel a lit calmer about that now. I'm still pregnant at the moment although my gut is telling me all is not well with the baby, I woke up this morning with a feeling it had died but I am actually quite calm about that now the stitch is out and I know I can labour naturally if I need to. I'm being scanned again on Thursday.

Methe, have you given the baby a name?

No not yet but we will when it's born. I've got a feeling it's a boy and if I'm right it'll probably be William or Peter.. None of the girls names I like seem right somehow.

How are you doing Methe? Still thinking of you and sending good wishes

Oh Methe, I am so sorry this is happening. I wish there was something I could do or say to take it all away. You were such a supportive voice on my thread last year, I'm eternally grateful for that.

You and your family will be in my thoughts.

I'm in hospital at the moment on iv antibiotics because I've got an infection, I feel absolutely rotten. We are going to start the induction later today I think.

Thanks for thinking of me x