Friend is 29 weeks pregnant, in early labour and 3cms dilated.....anyone any experience, support etc?

[Aimsmum]

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her labour may slow - they may have given her something to help it slow down. its doubtful she will now go overdue or anythhing, but everyday baby is inside her is great.

chances of survival - and survivial without damage are getting better everyday.

i hope things work out well for her and her baby.

stay positive when you speak to her, and let her do alot of the talking.

xx

it might well be possible her labour can be slowed to give the steroids time to work or it can even stop. every day her baby is in utero is a bonus. 30 weeks is early, but not always catastrophic. baby will need a lot of help though if he arrives early. hopefully labour can be stoppped

Some stats from last week's news which are, I believe encouraging, esp if you look at how much the survival rates increase with each extra week, and these are several weeks earlier than you friend.

I know someone from another forum who had her baby at 27 weeks, and she is now 2.5 and appears to have no health problems at all .

I would imagine that they will keep her in even if the labour stops for now, so busy yourself getting her books and puzzles to entertain her if that is the case.
Fingers crossed she can have 10 more weeks of boredom!

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Ok - some really good and encouraging news for you and your friend.

At just over 29 weeks my waters broke and I was taken into hospital, given the injections etc to help mature thelungs. I was told that the baby (boy) was a good size and at 30 weeks it isn't too much of a problem. Well I was bed bound from then, in hospital, I actually managed another week before DS was born.

My DS weighed 4lbs (1.85Kg)- yes small, but not that small!! Still hurt! He was taken to SCBU - Special Care Baby Unit - and was monitored very closely for a few days, he needed no help in breathing or anything.

The only thing he could not manage was to feed from me, so I expressed milk and he was tube fed with it. After 2 weeks (yes only 2 weeks) he started to breast feed (very early, the sucking reflex is not usually there until much later). He was unable to have all his feeds this way, partly because I had been discharged from hospital and had to travel to be with him. We were there most of the time but my DD was only 17 months and she needed caring for aswell!

After nearly 2 more weeks he came home, weighing the 5lb that was the minimum they could be let out weighing. He was 34 weeks (or would have been)!!

There was absolutely nothing wrong with him atall, he was given allowances on the baby scale for measuring height and weight due to his early birth, but within 3 months of being born he had caught up!!! By 6 months he was off the scale and when they dropped the age related allowances he settled on the 97th percentile in both weight and height.

He is now 14 years old, 6 feet 1 inch, weighs about 11.5 stone and has always been very healthy. Definately not suffered atall, he was obviously ready to be born!

So, on that note - keep positive and I hope things turn out the same way for your friend as they did for me.

Xx

PS I do know the other side of the coin - I lost my first DD at 26 weeks, but that is really just too early and that was nearly 17 years ago, but my next DD, a 37 weeker was absolutely fine.

Take care.

Sorry the post is so long but I hope it helps.

Aims - I have no experience of having a premmie myself but I did recently spend a fair bit of time in the neo natal unit at St.Georges (a level 3 unit - one of the best in the country) and I met lots of parents whilst I was there of babies born very early.

Whilst 30 weeks is early there are SO many very happy outcomes, I'm presuming she is somewhere with a good neo natal unit or will be transferred. It will be really tough on your friend and she will need lots of support as she probably has a good few weeks ahead of her where she is to-ing and fro-ing from the NNU. Maybe not immediately but in a couple of weeks I would certainly offer to go and sit with her up there.

The corridors of St Georges were adorned with hundreds of happy and inspiring stories of healthy children who were born as early 26 weeks, it's not ideal but she is in the best place for her and baby.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, keep us posted.

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Well I'll offer my congratulations and hope for the best Aimsmum.

All the very best to your friend
my friend had her twins at 29 weeks at new year - went into labour and had them 2 hours later, but they are doing great now. They were in hospital for a couple of months and the little boy had to have one small op (but don't think this was because he was a premmie) and they are home and gaining weight fast now. Let us know how she gets on

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Fingers crossed all goes smoothly for her from now, post more details when you have them please.

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best wishes to her. My nephew was born a few months ago at 29 weeks, was fed on breast milk and is thriving. He's 5 months old now. Fingers crossed.

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My friend's ds was born at 30 weeks weighing only 2lbs. He is 3 now and, although still small, is absolutely fine....Mum and dad are both small so he was never going to be a giant.

My DS born at 29 weeks weighing 3lb 2oz. Hes now 7 months old and doing great

My cousin was born at 25 weeks and is now a happy 15 year-old girl. Hard to imagine she once fit in the palm of a hand.

3lb 10oz is a good weight. I'll be thinking of your friend Aimsmum. Just to add to the positive stories of other people that I was hospitalised at 27 weeks with my dd1. I wasn't in labour, but had heavy bleeding and they were worried that dd would have to be born at that stage. I was told by the nurses in SCBU that even one dose of the steroid that they give (dexamethasone?) makes an enormous difference to how babies do if they are born very early. So it's great that your friend got some steroids before she had her baby. Wishing them all well.

Aimsmum , I have no direct experience of premature babies, but my cousin had a little girl at 29 weeks, due to placenta abruption. Her dd weighed 1 kg. She is now a lovely, healthy toddler . 29 weeks is early but the statistics are very good.
One thing I noticed in my cousin's experience was that the doctors were really reluctant to make predictions in the first few weeks, which made my cousin very apprehensive. Because of course you want to be told that everything will be all right, while I gather that the first weeks should be taken day by day.
It's great that your friend has all your support. I wish her lovely little boy a speedy recovery

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Good news Aimsmum

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That's good to hear Aimsmum. There was a thread earlier today about breastfeeding a premature baby, if she needs any assistance.