Very Short Cervix - Please tell me its going to be OK?

[ReallyWorriedAgain]

OK, its been a hell of a journey to get to 12weeks but just as one worry ends, another has been waiting just around the corner.

Due to my history I was given a scan to measure the length of my cervix, it was 2.3cm. Consultant said that anything less than 2.5 was considered 'incompetant'.

I am now sick with worry. He mentioned cervical stitches and progesterone pessaries but I was shaking with fear that nothing went in. I'm going to be scanned every 2 weeks to see if it starts to get shorter but I'm terrified I'm going to miscarry my baby at a late stage or have a very premature birth.

Does anyone have any experience or advice? I have no idea how I'm going to continue to lead a normal(ish) life over the coming months and I already have a very active 4 year old that I'm worried will suffer.

Would be so grateful for any advice?

Hopefully I can give you some reassurance.

You don't say what your history is, but if it is anything like mine, I can understand why you might worried. I have had:

2 x LLETZ treatment for CIN3
DS1 (age 3) - Born at 33 weeks
2 x MMC (both confirmed by scan at 13 weeks)

Happily, I am now 33 1/2 weeks pregnant with DS2.

Due to the LLETZ treatment and previous preterm delivery, I had cervical scans at 16 and 20 weeks. The first measured 2.7cm, which is just above the 2.5 mark. If your cervix was very short (say 1.5) they would almost certainly recommend a stitch, but as it is just below 2.5, they will probably just monitor it instead. I was lucky and measured the same at 20 weeks, so no stitch was required. Hopefully you will be the same.

Clearly you will feel very anxious, but important thing is that you are being well looked after by your hospital and hopefully this should help to give you some reassurance (it certainly helped me). My advice is just to take it one appointment at a time - thinking too far ahead will just cause more worry, when to a large extent things are out of your hands.

If you haven't done so already, I recommend you visit the Bliss website. You will find a lot of posts on their pregnancy message board about cervical scans, stitches, progesterone (much more than on here).

Best of luck for a long and uneventful pregnancy!

Thank you so much. Yes, my history is somewhat similar! I've had 1 lot of treatment for CIN 2 and then cervical tearing during delivery of DS. I then had another lot of loop excision for abnormal cells which has left me rather 'short' in the cervix department!

I'm feeling like I'd sign up for anything at the moment if it would stop me from losing the baby. You are right though, the regular scans will be reassurance. The thought of a stitch sounds horribly painful but I'd do it like a shot.

Congratulations for getting to 33 weeks, you must be very relieved. Great to hear that yours hasn't changed length, its reassuring that it doesn't always happen.

Off to have a look at the Bliss website, thanks so much for the reassurance.