Ant advice on how to prepare for a premature baby? Anyone had cervical stitch?

[LittleBairn]

I'm currently 26+4 and basically on borrowed time my consultant doesn't think I will go past 28 weeks.

So questions:
How many People were present at the delivery? I'm very very stressed out at the thought of birthing to an audience.

If you were on celexen(sp?) blood thinning injections when did you stop them, did it cause extra complications during birth? I was thinking I might prefer a C-section if possbe due to the whole audience issue.

How soon were you/DH/DP allowed into neonatal to see your baby?
I've read a few stories about not being allowed in for the first 6 hours, is this true? DH in particular will be querying the legality if so.

I would like to BF but understand this isn't possible to beginning but I can express BM. Afterwards did your baby manage BF at the breast?

Has anyone taken DHA supplements? Do you feel they made a difference? I've been taking some but just realised at 10mg its a low dose just about to order the higher dose ones from Nordic Naturals.

Is there anything I can do to prepare or do I just need to accept it and let the dr/midwives/nurses be in charge?

Anything you would like to been told in advance?

My story lost DS at 16 week, DD1 at 19 weeks and despite my history I was refused an early cervical stitch but was monitored closely.
At 20 weeks I was found to be funneling, only had 1.4mm left so a stitch was put in and then I was sent home after measuring 3.86. A week later I was 1.3 i was admitted for tilted bed rest for 5 weeks.
I got up to 1.8 but then on Tuesday found to be right back at the stitch, basically the tilt wasn't working and I've been allowed home on strict bed rest to wait it out.
We got the steroid injections at 24 weeks, I'm on Asprin, blood thining injections, Cyclogest pessaries and 1000mg of Vit C a day

The hospital has been evasive about what happens next in particular the deliver and neo natal care. All I've been told is they can't guarantee me & baby a bed (this is more to do with labour ward being over-crowded than neo-natal) I was warned because they would want to send me to the hospital my babies died in.
Under no circumstances will I accept this we are just about to start dealing with them due to their incompetence contributing to my DDs death and we know recently that there was an investigation into the neo-natal unit and the unusual amounts of neo-natal deaths.

I struggled with low supply and I think that was at least partly because I didn't express enough at the beginning. Took about a week to come in I think. My body just wasn't ready. Part of the reason things went well for us although it was awful at the time is that my son wasn't ready for milk for a good few days and was given intravenous nutrition. I've trained as a peer supporter since and have a much better understanding of bf.

The best things I think are to express a lot from the start. 8-12 times in 24 hours minimum to mimic a newborn feeding pattern. Express inthe night. They don't have to be evenly spread- 'cluster' expressing works well. Double pump if you can. Ask for the bf nurse to come to see you- some hospital pumps have specific settings for prem mums but not everyone knows about them. Breast compressions while pumping increased amounts hugely for me.

Skin to skin as early and often as you can. Don't be afraid to keep asking. A photo of your baby or something that smells of them can help. I was also advised to use bm for mouth care before DS could feed orally and put a breast pad in the incubator so he could smell me too.

Some people swear by oats and fennel tea and fenugreek tablets- 1.5g 3x day. There is also domperidone which has the side effect of increasing milk supply in some women but I think doctors are quite reluctant to prescribe it for this reason.

Brilliant advice celtic thank you. I've taken nite of everything you have said so I will have it to re-read when the time comes.

I'm so sorry for your losses, LittleBairn. That must have been awful.

My DS was born at 29 weeks. It was spontaneous labour and went very fast on the day, so there wasn't time for any pain relief. I think there were probably about a dozen or so people in the room at its busiest, but those I was aware of were all very supportive and polite, and I found I really didn't mind the others being there - I was too focused on keeping on top of the pain and then on pushing to really care. They put him on my chest for a few seconds and I was able to kiss him before he was carried away to a room next door - my DH went with them. One of the doctors took a quick picture of DS using my mobile phone and brought it to me (as I then had to go into theatre, but that's a story for another time). I think they and DH went to NICU separately but I was never in any doubt that DS wasn't ours (and had a photo to prove it!).

As DS was reasonably stable, DH was able to give him Kangaroo care a couple of hours later. We were allowed in to see him straight away, although I chose to wait a few hours, as I needed time to rest, regroup and start expressing.

I was able to bf my DS and still do at 18 months. I second all of Celtic's recommendations. I expressed 8 times a day, religiously, including once or twice a night (as had mild insomnia anyway). There's some evidence that starting to express within 5 hours of delivery helps with milk production. I expressed colostrum using a pump, and my milk fully came in on the 4th day. Breast compressions and massage before and during expressing helped with supply I think. A hospital-grade double pump (Medela or Ameda) is the only way to go, at least for the first few weeks. I took the Pregnacare DHA supplements - I don't know whether they helped but I like to think they did. Fish oil is a blood thinner, however, so I guess do run the higher dose past your doctor if you're taking any other blood thinning medication.

I hope that helps, but shout if you have any questions.

Fashion you have been really helpful especially on the DHA I've just ordered a super high dose from fish oil, my current lower dose ones are Vegan. I will speak to my consultant on Thu about it and get his opinion before I take any.

Yep yr dd should be able to feed at the breast eventually. We'd never had got to 2 yrs bfing if I'd had to express. For me 8 pumping sessions were not enough and 10-12 was the magic number. I swear by a certain brand of barley water for increasing your supply and for me hospital grade or not I couldnt get on with pumps. I had to do it by hand.

Hi, my preemie was 34 weeks so quite different but here's my thoughts fwiw:

Birth - DD was quite bashed up by the birth and seemed to get stuck for a while, I have heard small babies are actually harder to birth. I suspect they will advice CS for a 28 weeker, I would be reluctant to try VB at 28 weeks given experience with DD.

I had 2 midwives and a paediatrician present for VB. Possibly one or two other staff as well right at the end. CS would involve more people.

NB If you may have to be in another hospital, it's best to transfer before birth rather than after - much safer for baby. my hospital had no NICU space so I was transferred whilst in labour.

Seeing dd after birth - She was rescucitated on a heated trolley. Then wrapped up and I held her briefly. No skin to skin or first feed as she was not in great shape. Then taken to NICU. DH went down and saw her within an hour iirc. I saw her about 4 hours post birth mainly because I was exhausted and so slept before heading to NICU.

Expressing - in the first day, when you are producing thick yellow colostrum rather than milk, hand expressing is best, into a syringe. It's difficult and frustrating but every drop you can get is gold. Hot flannels and looking at your baby or a picture of your baby can help. Do ask about donor milk too. the advice I had was only move onto pumping once you're past colostrum, as the colostrum is too thick/scarce for pumping and you'll lose a lot of it in the pump. Once you start producing milk on day 2/3, agree with all prev advice about double pump, hospital grade pump at home, pump overnight, breast compressions.. I used to do 10pm, 2am and 7am I think plus every 2-3 hours in the day. Once supply is well established you can get away with less often. have lots of food and lots of water - esp as the NICU is very hot and dry.

BFing - DD was tube fed until she was 37 weeks - I was trying to BF her at every feed but she didn't really get the hang of it till 37 weeks - and even then she was very sleepy and hard to get to feed enough until 41 weeks. Turned out later she was tongue tied which may explain some of this. It takes a LOT of patience to bf a preemie as you will be dying to get her home ASAP once she is in SCBU, and that is quicker if you bottle feed... but i'm very glad I persevered. (it helped that I had a good milk supply and found expressing easy).

very best of luck. I am so sorry about your losses.

crazy I've heard barely water s meant to help luckily I quite like it.

mini in regards to the transfer they definitely sounded like it would be in labour or just before. The issue seems to be the over crowded labour ward may not have a bed for me, woman are usually sent up to ante-natal (quite a few babies born on the ante-natal ward during my stay) but wouldn't be suitable for me as it to far from neo-natal and the rooms are tiny so not enough space for all the medical staff tht would need to be present.

Good point about the hand expressing I remember noticing how much seemed to get wasted (well droplets but is hard work!) in comparison using my hand. I used YouTube videos to teach me so I will re-watch them.