PPROM at 36 weeks, birth plan out the window, can anyone share their experiences?

[Petcat]

I'm 36+5 so just short of full term. I have had a small but steady amount of watery discharge and erratic contractions for about a week now. My community midwife assured me this was normal and my birth plan was optimistically written with minimal intervention, natural pain relief and a water birth in mind.

I spent yesterday in the DAU as my bump has been consistently rock hard and I just didn't feel 'quite right'. Midwife confirmed that my waters are slowly leaking and monitoring showed I am having mild contractions but my cervix is closed and baby seems to be happy enough. Although I don't currently have any signs of infection, they have assessed me as being higher risk as I may have had compromised membranes for a while now.

I have now been transferred to consultant-led care, which means I have to give birth in a different unit to the one I was planning to use. I have been given steroid injections to help mature baby's lungs, and am on antibiotics 4 times a day. I was allowed home in the evening provided I monitored my temperature every few hours, and have to go back in today for a scan to see how much amniotic fluid is left.

I have been told I will need to have an antibiotic IV and continuous monitoring throughout my labour, and baby may need IV antibiotics for a couple of days after the birth too. It's about as far away from my ideal birth scenario as you can get really. I'm hoping to keep the baby in for a while yet and I think the hospital are happy to support expectant management for a little while, but I may have to be induced if things don't get going in the next week or so.

I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. How did your birth go? What pain relief did you need to use? Were you able to be active/use different positions in spite of the monitoring? Did your baby need to go to SCBU after delivery or were you able to stay together? Just trying to get my head around a very different birth to the one I had hoped for really.

I had PPROM with DD1 at 36+5. My waters went all at once and contractions started. Mine was complicated by the fact that I'd had DS1 by c-section as he was a breech baby.

They said if everything went smoothly I could give birth naturally, but if it was stop-start then I'd have a second c-section as that would be safer because of the first. I'd had such a positive experience the first time, I told them to go straight to c-section.

DD1 needed a couple of days in SCUBU because she was grunty. I hadn't had any steroids and that's probably why she had slight breathing problems. At no point was anyone worried about her.

She is 7 this month and has had absolutely no developmental problems due to her early start. Hope this reassures you. I know how it is when your plans seem to go up in smoke. But it doesn't mean it has to be an awful experience either.

Thanks for sharing! I am now due to be induced on Tuesday but have a feeling baby isn't going to wait that long! Contractions are coming every 10 minutes now and seem to be picking up the pace in terms of intensity. I'm getting to use the breathing techniques and so on right now so don't feel all those antenatal classes were a total waste of time!

I had a scan yesterday which showed baby is a good weight already, and along with the steroids should be able to cope fine with being born a bit early. There's a great thread above about epidurals which has helped me feel a lot more positive about using whatever pain relief I need.

So many people warned me not to get too attached to my birth plan and I was surprised just how upsetting I've found having nearly all my choices taken away. Classic first-timer mistake I guess. Fortunately the terror's wearing off and now I am just excited to meet my baby, however he or she makes it into the world

Good luck!

Thanks! Didn't imagine I'd be posting on MN in the wee small hours either, just exciting to be able to tell someone what's going on

Good luck!
Hoping for a safe arrival for you

this happened to me and i went into labour naturally...good luck

Great that you've had some extra time to get used to things. Good luck and can't wait to hear about your new arrival.

Hope all is ok. Similar thing happened to me at 36 weeks (full loss) and I was put under great pressure to be induced, which we declined. Important thing is to decline/refuse all vaginal examinations as this can introduce infection. I monitored my temperature, and the condition of the leaking waters, and for any other sign of infection and would have had blood checks (for infection) but I went into spontaneous labour 5 days later. We did accept IV anitbiotics in labour but this did seem to cause gut damage to my baby, and we also had a dreadful ductal/oral thrush infection which was a bugger to clear. I had an unmedicated waterbirth though. Hope you are ok x

Just a quick update to let you know DD was eventually brought into the world after days of augmented labour. She's small but beautiful and relatively unharmed by her dreadful birth. I can't even begin to think about all the things that have been done to my body, my worst fears ended up happening and I have no idea how to come to terms with it all.

But my lovely little girl is here now, sleeping on my chest and reminding me that all the pain and fear is worth it. When I look into her eyes I feel such incredible love and pride that she is mine.

Thank you to everyone who wished us well

Sorry to hear you had a difficult time. I had a similar experience with PROM, a long labour & every intervention going. It does get easier and the memory fades as your body heals. It was tough though. Give yourself time and take it as easy as you can. Congrats on your DD

So glad your daughter is here and safe.

That doesn't mean you should push away what happened to you and how you are feeling. My DS2 was premature and the birth was awful. He is thankfully growing up fine, but his birth will always be one of the best and the worst day of my life.

See how you feel, be kind to yourself, all your feelings are normal even when it feels overwhelming to feel such love and trauma all at the same time. Take counselling or a birth debrief if you can. I found that telling someone objective the whole story - giving it a beginning, middle and end - really helped.