Dad to be worried about partner.waters broke today at 35 weeks?

[StevenLeia]

Hi all,
I wondered how common it is for waters to break so early?
I am very worried although I never let that show to my partner of course as its our first.She has been given steroids and will be sent home tommorow evening if the contractions have not started.
They would like to induce her in two weeks (37 weeks) but I am petrified about infections etc in between this time..
Any one been in a similar situation?Any advice regarding preventing infections?
Thanks for any help.yours petrified
Steve..

Hi Steve I can't offer advice on this except to say that 35 weeks isn't exceptionally early and try not to worry too much! Easier said than done I know. Someone will be along soon with good advice - in the meantime have a look in the archive (it's under "search all messages" at the top). Good luck to you & your partner!

Oh sweetie try not to panick, how lovely that your all concerned though. Sorry not helping am I! To be honest I have no experience of this, have you contacted the hospital or midwife?

Thanks for the replys so far..
I havent been home from the hospital long actually, my partner had a scan,blood test and a swab and been on a monitor twice today.It would have been nice to see a consultant today!?I must say the midwives were brilliant!..Baby is moving less today compared to the last few weeks but once got going it showed really well on the monitor.phew.
I can understand why the steriods were given and trying to wait until 37 weeks but to me it seems 50/50 with the chance of infection??
Or am I just panicking and the chance of infection low!?

Hi there!
With DS 2 my waters broke at 36 weeks - I just got out of bed to go to work in the morning and wha-hey. I went to hospital and was basically told to get into a bed and keep my legs crossed . They gave me a steroid injection too, to mature his lungs. It was all fine. I had contractions on and off, getting more and more on iyswim.
So The waters broke on the tuesday morning, and he was born on the Saturday. All was fine.
I was in quite alot of pain for some of the time and was sent for scans to check amount of fluid around baby.
How is your partner feeling?

Hi Steve, This happened to me with one of mine.
My waters broke at 34 weeks and i was given antibiotics as a precaution to prevent infection,
I had to stay in hospital until my daughter was born at 36 weeks and 5 days.
She was absolutely fine.

I think your partner is lucky to have you, being so concerned for her and baby.

I'm sure everything will be ok.

Make sure she has her bag packed!!!!!

Good luck to you both.

Thanks for that reply nwgreenmum,
She has had no contractions at all so far,on the monitor the baby thankfully started moving quite a bit before it was partner chucking out time.but the lower line on the monitor was pretty flat.
She has been "leaking" all day,every time she goes to the loo to change her pad by the time she is back to the bed she is back to square one bless her!
She feels ok though so she says..but was worried about the next steroid injection..(i never mentioned any thing about labour pains at this point)
Only thing is for a maternity ward she is the only one in the ward tonight (so far) so I felt terrible having to go.
Do you think they may really leave her until 37 weeks? should this be a worry for me or is that better than born at 35 weeks?
Sorry for so many questions!
Steve

P.S
It seems they are intending on sending her home after 48 hours if nothing has happened.

The longer the baby is left to be born the better.
I was leaking or flooding the whole time i was in there.
She may well go into labour herself.

If she's the only one on the ward, at least she'll get some sleep!!!

The steroid injections do hurt. I had lots with my kids, as they were all born early (36,33,31 weeks)
The hospital will keep a close eye on her re; infections. When I was in hospital with dd2 there was a lady whose water went at 34 weeks and she managed to go quite far, (about 37 weeks i believe) I saw her a few weeks back and her son is doing well now (5 years old now)

PS I was the only on the antenatel ward at one point, it was lonely but I did get a great nights sleep.

What a wonderful bunch you are on here!.
So pleased we picked up that book in mothercare with the link to Mumsnet now!
Thanks for the positive imput..cant wait to see my partner in the morning.
Any other advice will be smashing and will check in the morning before heading to hospital.
Thanks again
Steve

oh advice on preventing infection, no nookie

Sparkly LOL - Like she's gonna feel like that

i know, but the hospital will tell her the same FWIW Stevenleia, all my kids did ok, even my dd1 who was born at 31 weeks.

Hi Steve,

A few things to look for when she goes home are

• fever. Temp >37.5C phone labour ward
• water turning from clear to green (meconium), phone and go in
• any fresh blood without mucus (show) in it
• regular contractions of

My friends baby was born at 34 weeks and was fine - spent a couple of days in special care as a precaution but was absolutely fine - she is now a beautiful, funny nearly 4 year old who has never looked back!

She never had the chance for steroid injections so the fact that your partner has had 1 or 2 of those is even better.

Can I just say you sound a lovely Dad to be and very supportive to your partner!

Congratulations on the imminent arrival

Steve,

They will be able to test your partner for infections with a swab. If she does get an infection they can treat her with antibiotics which will pass to baby. If they don't have enough time to get antibiotics in then baby can have IV antibiotics after birth.

35 weeks is very, very viable. Infact at 36 weeks most babies I've seen are just on transitional care rather than on the special care baby ward.

I also once met someone who's waters went at 24 weeks who carried nearly to term and baby was fine. Obviously it depends how much of the fluid is gone, but it can replenish to a certain extent.

hth

Hi,
I can imagine you're very worried. Your baby is definitely still better off inside than outside. Your partner will probably be sent home with some prophylactic antibiotics and a thermometer/a number of disposable thermometers. She'll be asked to keep check on her temp as that is usually one of the first signs of an infection.
She'll also be asked to keep an eye on
-the colour of the water, it needs to stay clear
-the baby's movements
-start of any contractions
She might also be asked to go to hospital a number of times to be checked over and monitored.
Oh and your baby wont run out of water as some people think, because it gets constantly replenished.
The vast majority of women go into labour within 48h of their waters breaking. If this happens, the steroid injections will have helped with maturing your baby's lungs and it should be OK, just a bit on the small side. There's a good chance that your baby can come to the postnatal ward with your wife and if he/she does need to go to special care, this shouldn't be for more than a few days.
I hope everything will work out fine for all of you and that you'll soon have a healthy happy bouncy baby in your arms. Good luck

hi there steve
i just wanted to say my ds was born at 35 weeks and 5 days......and we spent 4 days in hospital having transitional care (which was nothing more than regular temperature and blood sugar checks for ds) and then we went home. my ds is now 18 months old and a real live wire!
hope everything goes well for you all.

Thanks again for the replies..
Just to update with what happened today..
I got a call from the hospital at 5am to go in as she was having contractions,she was in the labour ward and you could see on the print out she was having two contractions every ten mins.I have just left the hospital (22.00) as she is STILL having two conractions per ten mins all these hours later.
She has been moved back into the maternity ward as the doctor has told us she is not having labour contractions? and that these may go on for two weeks???she is so weak after today!how can she last that time??
Also she was given anti biotics twice today and with the contractions she was vomiting alot after..she was told she would be given a anti vomiting injection,this was forgotten about?
It was me (a mechanic) that suggested she may be allergic to the anti biotics as she was so sick?..this recieved a blank face..I went back to my partner and put the main light on and she was covered in a rash!
They then stopped the ethrymycin,and have given her nothing else?
I am very worried for my partner,for the baby,for infections as she has no antibiotics.
Back home very tired and dont know what to do next?the ward shift seemed to change so much today and I know they are brilliant but I wonder who to speak to first thing to find out whats going on.
We never got a chance to get booked on an antinatal class so as for the breathing during contractions I have used the internet to find out.
These seemed to have helped her relax a bit more tonight..