Baby no.3 after 2 premature births

[El91]

I’ve just found out I’m pregnant with my third baby and wondering if anyone has any advice.
I’ve had 2 premature births, my first was born at 35 weeks and my second at 32 weeks. I went into spontaneous labour both times and both labours were less than an hour from start to finish. I was low risk for both pregnancies but consultant led for my second due to my first being premature.
Without getting too much into it, I wasn’t happy with my care from the consultants. I was getting scans every 4 weeks to measure my cervix to make sure I wasn’t going into premature labour but half the time they just done a growth scan of the baby and not the measurement like they were supposed to do, which resulted in me giving birth at 32 weeks even though I had a scan the day before and nothing was picked up on.
Anyway, I’m just wondering what kind of care I will be offered this time round? I think I have a weak or incompetent cervix (purely self diagnosis lol) and I’m terrified that I will go into labour even earlier this time. Will I be offered a cervical stitch? I’m adamant that this is what I want just for peace of mind, but I’m not the best at advocating for myself. Does anyone know if I will be given the option of this or if I’ll have to push to get it?
Obviously I will ask at my booking appointment but just want to see if anyone has been in the same situation. And if anyone has had a cervical stitch after previous premature births, did you go on to have a full term baby? Also what week of pregnancy do they do the stitch? Thanks!

My first 2 , separate not twins, were born at 34 weeks, I was never offered any extra investigations or monitoring for 2nd or my next 3 babies. My 3rd was bang on my dd , 4th 2 days over, 5th 38 weeks. So no , didn’t happen with my third.

OP Instead of asking what care you'll be offered, you need to tell them what care you want.

If you end having regular scans ask them every time while you're in the room 'what was the cervix measurement and is it ok' to make sure they do it properly.

You need to advocate for yourself and your baby you don't just have to accept whatever care you're given

Congratulations and best of luck with your pregnancy x

I think advocate , advocate, advocate for yourself.

If you aren’t happy that they aren’t taking certain measurements - speak up. If you want extra care due to previous premature births - speak up.

You can ask for a cervical stitch and push this with consultants.

I know this is harsh but true, but even if you hate speaking up (I do too) this isn’t just about you, it’s speaking up for your baby too. So say something x

it sounds like it'd be sensible to ask for an early consultant appointment to debrief re. the last deliveries and see where the evidence is best for trying to get this pregnancy as close as poss to term. It's not my specialty, but a a few thoughts picked up from hanging about on labour ward a lot.... IIRC they wouldn't usually have put in a suture at 32 weeks even if they had thought things were progressing because of the risk of rupturing membranes/introducing infection and complicating things more...have a feeling that 24 weeks is usually the magic number for an emergency one. Not sure either if 2 post-30 week premmies has the same weight of evidence for putting in a prophylactic suture vs monitoring/other management, but the consultant should be able to go through that with you. Am pretty sure they would want to be very very sure it was cervix related prematurity before suggesting a suture given the speed of your previous labours and the risk to your cervix of another 1 hour labour with a stitch in. Hope they're able to come up with a sensible plan for you.

Thank you for your reply! Is there any way for them to check if it was cervix related or would it just be a case of waiting to see if my cervix starts to shorten as the weeks go by?

i guess it'd depend on what the scans they did do showed and whether or not there were any other things that might have precipitated early labour (like an infection or something). When you're in touch with MWs maybe ask for an appointment sooner rather than later (think about 12 weeks is when they start monitoring so they probably need to know about you before then) and they can dig up your notes and go through it all with you. Quite a few Trusts have online guidelines re sutures so it may be worth googling yours to see if there's anything there.