Cervical stitch - experiences?

[BabsUnited]

Hi everyone

I am 10+4 weeks and I'm booked in for a cervical stitch for when I'll be 12+3. The reason I'm having this is that my DS was born prematurely at 30+2 weeks. It's officially gone down as 'unexplained' but the consultant thinks some sort of infection made my membranes rupture which then kicked off labour. So the stitch will keep my cervix tightly shut and the plan is to remove at 37 weeks (if I get there). DS suffered as a result of his early arrival and has cerebral palsy so I feel desperate to do anything I can to prevent something similar happening again.

I know a little about the procedure (I'll be having a spinal, and its done as a day case) but does anyone know of any good resources to find out about success rates? Consultant said there's not been any widescale studies on it but she thinks that the stitch, along with progestone pessaries, will likely help me. But other people I speak to seem to be pretty 'for' this, and others say it won't do anything (including a GP relative).

The procedure itself carries risks (risk of membrane rupture/miscarriage and, ironically, introduction of infection) so I'm trying to be totally sure I'm making the right decision. My consultant has recommended it, but another I saw said she wouldn't recommend it and I had to push her to contact the other consultant who then said she should go ahead, so she booked me in for it. The procedure will be done at Homerton Hospital which has a very good NICU and I think they do a fair amount of research into premature birth. This is where my DS was born.

I feel like I should be doing something proactive to reduce my risk of premature labour again. I think I'm doing the right thing but wobbling a bit. .

Has anyone had one? Any positive stories?!

[strangerjo]

Hi all, I had a cervical stitch put in on Sunday (20wks). My cervix went from 42mm to 21mm in two weeks. I have not had any procedures to my cervix and this is my first pregnancy, but I do have weak collagen in my body which may be the cause.

Lots of people said they felt no pain after the cerclage but three days after and I still feel very tender in my pelvis and lower back, particularly painful when standing. The midwife said this was from the pulling of the round ligaments - did anyone else get this and how long did it take to subside? (Actually the whole procedure was worse than I expected - my legs had painful pins and needles throughout and hurt for about 6 hours after).

I have received conflicting advice about activity following the procedure. I'm keen to maintain some level of fitness for my bones and joints (I had problems with these pre-pregnancy) but have no idea what's safe. What were other people advised?

As for bed rest, was anyone advised to do this?

Cheers!

[Pizdets]

Hi Charlotteeee sorry not to reply sooner, this had dropped off my active threads. Well done getting past the point at which you lost your little boy, it's a huge achievement (and an emotional one). I hope now you're a few weeks on things are easier and you're starting to accept you might get a baby to bring home.

I wanted to check in as I'm now only 6 days from Stitch Out at 36+5 - time seems to be flying and very unprepared. DH and I having a minor panic and planning to sort the nursery this weekend just in case he decides to come quickly, although with DS I went a further 3 weeks to my due date so hoping this one is the same and I get to take some maternity leave too!

Curtains I've been thinking of you and hope all going well. Good luck to the other ladies due about the same time as me - there must be more stitches coming out in the next couple of weeks???

Piz

[Charlotteeee]

Hi there, just wanted to join your group if that's ok?
I've just made it to 24 weeks after having a stitch put in at 12 weeks.
I lost my little boy last october due to an incompetent cervix. Getting to the same point in this pregnancy that I lost my little boy has been a huge milestone to reach, although I have found it incredibly hard.
Just wanted to get in touch with others in a similar situation as I have found it helps to hear other success stories and there are so many on here.

[BabsUnited]

Sorry to hear that Curtains, what a traumatic experience it all sounds. Congratulations on the birth of your little boy. Hope you have lots of support around you. How is he doing now?

Hope you don't mind me asking but what made them believe the stitch had failed, had it come loose or moved or something?

[Pizdets]

Wow curtains sounds like a very stressful couple of weeks! Pleased your little boy has a chance, sending love to you all, please keep us updated, will keep you in my thoughts

[Newlywed123]

Oh gosh curtains, sounds like a long journey. Glad you managed to find a hospital that listened and cared. Hope your little boy keeps fighting and a big congratulations

[penguinplease]

Didn't want to read and run but I had 3 pregnancies with a stitch.
All very successful and the procedure was fine.
Good luck, it's worth it.
I had my first one relatively late at 26 weeks and the risks were high but it was fine.

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Hi there - sorry for the delay in updating, this is a bit of a long one...

Since I last posted, I was on hospital bed rest (tilted bed) (from the time of my scan at 21+3) plus antibiotics and nifedipine (to relax the uterus). Unfortunately for me, my consultant went on holiday and I had a range of Drs see me to suggest I changed medication/went home to rest - I'd been told by the consultant that I was to refuse to do either, so had a number of "interesting" conversations!

I made it to 23w, so they gave me steroids, but also started to get a pink discharge. They thought this was my waters going, although a scan showed I still had plenty of water around the baby. They changed my antibiotics as a precaution though.

At 23+5 I had sudden bright red bleeding and so asked to be transferred to a hospital that could take babies from 23/24w (the hospital I was in only cared for babies from 27/8w).

I was transferred but again had a number of interesting discussions as this hospital did things differently to my previous hospital/consultant. I really wasn't happy there and felt they weren't listening to me (especially given my experience of pre-term delivery), so asked to be transferred to another specialist hospital closer to home (this hospital previously hadn't had space available). I was 24+5 at this point.

They transferred me, but just as I was leaving I found I was having heavy bleeding again. On arrival at the new hospital I had a good chat with an excellent Dr who explained all the different scenarios and didn't push me into anything. I had blood tests and agreed to an internal examination (previously I'd refused because I didn't want to disturb anything/burst my membranes etc). The Dr said she was pretty sure my waters had partially gone (this was backed up by a scan) and that I had the start of an infection. She said that the benefits of keeping my baby inside any longer were being outweighed by the damage that an infection could do to him.
She also said that she believed the stitch had already failed (confirmed later).

So I agreed to an additional dose of steroids, magnesium sulphate (to help brain development) overnight, then induction hormones after a few hours.

My little boy was delivered at 24+6, he's alive and currently being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit. We have no idea what the prognosis is, but are just so thankful he was given the chance to develop further than his brothers (delivered at 22w) and hopefully get a decent chance of life. I believe that if I'd not had the stitch and had less monitoring as a result, we'd not have had this chance.

Hope this isn't too depressing a post. If I was having another pregnancy in the future (which I'm definitely not) I would have a stitch put in, no question about it.

[Newlywed123]

My consultant has wrote to tell me I get a scan at 28, 32 and 36 weeks for checks. I'm asking for one at 24 weeks to for reassurance.

Previous stitch removal was just gas and air- I found it horrid, my cervix grew over the stitch and it took a couple of attempts to remove. Wasn't pleasant!

[Pizdets]

Yes two different hospitals Babs, one big hospital in west London and now in the west county. So odd how there's no standard care for this!!

Try not to worry about worst case scenarios, they can always give you a spinal if needs be but generally it's fine! I'm a bit nervous as mine's coming out at 36 weeks rather than 37 last time but then DS was born pretty much on his due date so what will be will be!

[BabsUnited]

Whereabouts in the country are you Piz? I'm in Essex but having my care at Homerton in East London for now. Were yours at two at different hospitals?

Re stitch removal I read somewhere about someone whose cervix sort of grew over the stitches and they had to be cut out

[Pizdets]

Pleased all going well Babs!

I still can't believe the difference in care from hospital to hospital! With DS I had scans every 2-4 weeks up to 30 weeks (internal ones) and with this baby I had an internal scan at 16 weeks, a check at the 20 week scan and an external scan at 24 weeks which also checked the cervix (we had a previous tfmr so they check the baby's growth too). Now no more scans at all, except for one offered at 34 weeks but that's a growth scan due to baby looking big

I believe most stitch removals are g&a. That's what happened last time and what I'm being offered here. It's not pleasant but quick at least!! Looking forward to this one coming out and being 'normal' for the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Hope everyone is doing ok. Piz.

[BabsUnited]

Hi everyone

This dropped off my 'threads I'm on' so hunted it down again.

How are you doing curtains? Sorry to hear about the funnelling. Hope baby the bedrest and anti-bs help and stays put for a long while yet

I am now 22 weeks and so far things seem ok. Scan at 20 weeks was fine and the sonographer said cervix looked ok, said there was no funnelling but seemed confused why I was asking despite the fact I have a stitch and she knew my history . Anyway the consultant after that said she wouldn't recommend any extra scans as such, she said internal scans are best to check cervix and internal scan could introduce infection so she just said they'd do more checks in general, so to check heartbeat and check how I was feeling etc, every 4 weeks. Not sure if I feel reassured or not by that.

How is everyone else's care differing?

Does anyone know if stitch removal is usually done under sedation or is it a gas and air type scenario? I forgot to ask when I saw the consultant last time

[Newlywed123]

Hope everything is ok curtains

I lost this post, glad to have found it again

I had my stitch placed a just over a week ok at nearly 15 weeks, all went well and was Home a few hours later. Getting alot of tugging and pressure, which makes it hard running around after my 15 month old! Just waiting anxiously now until my 20 week scan next month to find out the length if my cervix now!

[April1984]

Yes curtains how's it going? If you need some inspirational stories there are lots of private Facebook groups about for ladies with an incompetent (hate that word!) cervix. I'm sure if you post your story you'll be flooded with responses from people who went through the something similar and came out the other side. You must be fairly well over 24 weeks now too. Thinking of you x

[Pizdets]

curtains just wondered how you're getting on? Not been logged on for a while due to this hacking thing but thinking of you and hope all ok!

All fine here, only 8 weeks until stitch removal and time seems to be flying. Starting to think about getting organised but not really there yet!

[April1984]

Curtains sorry to hear that. As Pizdits said, least they're being proactive. Lots of positive thoughts going your way. Bed rest is tough. Keep checking in. X

[Pizdets]

Oh gosh curtains I'm so sorry to hear that, how stressful! Good news that the stitch is holding the baby in at least and they're being proactive. Please keep us updated, been thinking of you all and hoping things were going ok.

All fine here, currently laid up with d&v which DS brought home from nursery but aside from paranoia that the wretching will pop my waters it seems ok. 27 weeks on Thursday so getting there slowly.

Hope everyone else is getting on ok? Thinking of you curtains. Xxx

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Hello - how is everyone doing?

Not great news from me. After my scan showed a cervix length of 3cm, the next (2 weeks later) showed funnelling all the way to the stitch and bulging membranes. Basically the stitch is the only thing keeping the baby in.

This is what happened (albeit without the stitch) when I lost a previous pregnancy at 22w+5/6. I'm 22w today.

I've been admitted to hospital for bedrest on a tilted bed, given antibiotics and uterus relaxants to try to buy some time. I'm desperately hoping that the combination of these things and the stitch will keep the baby in for longer this time. I'm terrified.

[Itscurtainsforyou]

Thanks all and congrats willnot

My scan was ok, 3cm cervix with some slight funnelling at the top, which they said was ok. However I mentioned the pressure feeling and twinges I've been having and the consultant had admitted me for rest/observation for the rest of the week.

I'm fine with this although I'm pretty sure may twinges are more spd-type pains (at least I hope so!). The frustrating thing is that at my last appointment the registrar fobbed me off saying that rest makes no difference. So two conflicting views...

I have another scan in a couple of weeks to complete the anomaly checks (baby was face down this time), so hopefully they'll have another look at the cervix then too. Go me, I want to get to 23w (past last loss point), then 24, then 28. I might relax after this (but not promising!).

[BabsUnited]

Wow congratulations willnot, what lovely news and fills me with hope.

Thanks also Pizdets for posting what they said about sex...have to say it's been on my mind rather a lot . DH has been getting 'his' (ahem) but I've said no to anything whatsoever for me, even non-penetrative as I've been worrying about what an orgasm might do. Although (tmi) I have actually had one in my sleep... But will abstain totally I think until stitch comes out, as I have become such a worrier I'm not sure I'd be able to let go enough. And if this DC does come early I'll be kicking myself and wondering if it was that that caused it. I just love giving myself a guilt trip Will make up for it later I'm sure.

[April1984]

Yeah there seem to be lots of varying views on progesteroe. My doc who did the stitch didn't seem bothered at all (I guess a typical surgeon approach- relies more on surgical intervention than medication). Whilst my current doc raves about it.

Willnotbetamed, great news! Thanks for sharing x

[Pizdets]

willnot what lovely news congratulations!!! So pleased it went well.

April I know how you feel - a 'rainbow' pregnancy is so bittersweet and it's so hard to balance the feelings of joy and loss and panic and hope! I did find as I got further into my pregnancy with DS I was able to relax more and start to 'believe' and I hope it will be the same for you.

I'm not on progesterone, I've got some which I was told to use 'as and when' (more really useful and definitive advice from the consultant!!) so I used it while I was cramping after the op and then stopped. I wasn't even offered it in the last pregnancy so not too bothered about using it - it's all such a stab in the dark isn't it??

[willnotbetamed]

So nice to hear good news from all sides! Congratulations everyone.

I also broke my record this pregnancy - I elected not to have a stitch in the end, but was on sick leave from 18 weeks, did lots of rest, and took progesterone three times a day. I made it past all the hurdles, started to relax at 34 weeks, relaxed even more at 36 weeks - and our third son was born a week ago today, on the dot of 37+0! First time I have made it that far. It was the easiest pregnancy of all in the end - no funnelling or shortening at any point until (I presume) I went into labour.

So, sending healthy pregnancy baby dust your way. Hang on in there. I have got my fingers crossed for all of you.

[April1984]

Also Piz, I'm pretty sure you're on progesterone too? When will you stop it? X