Pregnant again after a premature baby - anyone been there?

[Gonnabe]

Hi ladies
I gave birth to my son at 25+4 and he weighed a tiny 710g - after 108 days in hospital he came home and is doing great. He's now 13 months (10 months corrected) and to my shock I've discovered I'm pregnant - shock as it took a year to conceive him (after a miscarriage) and we used fertility drugs and were on a very strict regime shall we say!

Im so scared the same thing will happen again and wondered if anyone had any stories to share or info about getting more care during this pregnancy - what I should ask for etc.

I had thought that if I ever tried again for a baby I would see the GP before to get checked out, but I was caught out....!

Thanks x

Hi Gonnabe, haven't been there myself, but there are some threads about this kind of thing in the Premature Birth section - it's hiding under Being a Parent, you have to click more... to see the topic.

Glad to hear your son's doing great by the way x

Thank you - have been searching around trying to find these threads! X

Hi Gonnabe,

It seems we share similar stories. I have one DS who was born very prematurely at 28 weeks by EMCS after my waters broke in my 27th week of pregnancy. He spent 2 months in NICU and SCBU and is now 15 months old/ 1 year corrected and doing brilliantly (crawling, cruising etc). He has no lasting health problems that we're aware of, although it's fair to say that the whole period of his birth was the worst of our lives and left us very traumatised.

DS was conceived via IVF so I had no reason to expect that I could get pregnant naturally, however - like you - we were 'caught out' and when DS was 6 months old I found myself pregnant again, naturally this time!

I have spent most of this pregnancy in a state of fear expecting it all to go wrong at any minute. I found it particularly hard when I came up to the same gestation that my waters broke/ DS was born. Around that time I started telephone counselling sessions with Bliss (the premature baby charity) which were fantastic and really helped me rationalise my fears.

I'm now 32 weeks pregnant and still cooking merrily away. Although I am struggling with this pregnancy (big baby, swelling, v.mobile toddler to run around after) I am thrilled to have made it further along and have now started to consider the possibility that I might get to term and avoid a SCBU stay with my DS2.

I am under consultant care and see my (fantastic) gynae-obs every 2 weeks (weekly if I am feeling anxious). I have regular scans, have a cervical stitch and am on a rolling course of antibiotics this time around. To be fair my case is unusual as I had cervical cancer at 26 and had a lot of my cervix removed as part of my treatment. The reason DS1 came early was apparently due to an infection and not cervical incompetence.

Keeping my fingers crossed to get to at least 35/6 weeks. I'm hoping to avoid SCBU altogether this time and experience having my baby stay with me from birth as I obviously missed out on that with DS1.

As my consultant reminds me, no two pregnancies are the same so there is no reason to think that history will repeat itself for either you or me. Have you got a consultant/ plan in place for this pregnancy?

Congratulations on your pregnancy by the way - excellent news! It will be an anxious time for you no doubt but you will hopefully be very well looked after throughout.

Ps sorry for the essay!

Wow -you are doing so well - congratulations Snowboarder!

No plan yet as haven't seen my gp - no apts till 20.6.12 - but I def want to be put under a consultant - I was transferred to QCH last time as my local can't cope with 25 weekers so wondering if they will look after me this time. We had no explanation for the early birth, but I did bleed a lot through the pregnancy and the only thing they ever mentioned was possible infection.. I want a stitch but I'm not sure I need one! Wish id had a pre pregnancy chat with the GP now but I thought that they would think I was nuts ...

I know a lady whose son was born at 26 weeks (now a lovely 3 yr old!) and is now just about to have another, she's 40 weeks this week and doing fine.

Is there an Early Pregnancy Unit you can self-refer to? They might be more use than a GP anyway tbh!

Wishing you all the best with this pregnancy!

Btw Gonnabe, I bled also through my previous pregnancy - pretty much from my egg transfer up until 16 weeks. I had constant bleeding with a few 'big' miscarriage type bleeds (clots etc) but obviously didn't lose the baby.

No bleeding at all this time which makes me hopeful things will be different!

I just wanted to confirm what snowboarder has said.

Although my first son was premature (I had PE), he was nearly at term and a healthy enough weight.

With my second pregnancy I just tried to set a couple of goals - although it's not as though you can cross your legs if your body decides it's time and I was scared that something would go wrong and I wouldn't make it.

1. Try, try, try to get to 39 weeks (elcs)
2. Try to have a baby that weighs 7lbs or more
3. Be very pregnant
4. Be with my baby after birth

I achieved all of those (by an ounce ) - and can I just say that late pregnancy isn't all that and a bag of chips!

Ha alpinepony - I cant imagine late pregnancy! Am determined not to moan about weight gain this time thou as the guilt last time was horrible. I too am hoping it will be different this time - now I have DS there is less time to obsess like I did before. My EPU unit needs a referral so I will have to wait to see what gp says I guess. But DS has a checkup later this month at the hospital so I always take DS back to see nurses so I will pick their brains about what my next move will be!

snowboarder - who set up your consultant care? Is it GP reference? And how you doing today?
X

My sister's first was born at 33 weeks (so not quite as early as yours) and she carried her next two to term :)

I think it depends on your reasons for the prematurity
I had dd prem then had a vbac term ds after