Why?

[missjennipenni]

What were the reasons you had a premature birth?

Preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome.

ds2 stopped moving & was in distress, but why I have no idea?

Not 'proper' prem (36 weeks) - spontaneous labour and they decided he was ready enough to make up his mind and come out (Had had bleeding throughout pg, so had steroid injection already)

Premature rupture of membranes- not sure what caused it, but ended up with sky high blood pressure and so had to have ECS at 29+5

Not sure what happened really, was 33 weeks and didn't feel 'right' - instinct told me to get to hospital where I was put on a monitor. They were about to send me home when his heart rate started to fall so had emergency C-section.

Absolutely no idea, I tortured myself for a while to tr and find a reason. i was low risk in every single category and had no problems during pregnancy. In the end I just had to accept that it was one of those things.

pre eclampsia, not proper prem, was 35 weeks.
glad i had him early tho, he was only 5lbs and placenta was failing.
He was absolutely perfect and fine.

IUGR - there was absolutly no blood flow through the umbilical cord and not much water around ds the day before I had him at 33 weeks
My Theory is that I was carrying twins, lost one at 10 weeks when I had a extremley heavy bleed which damaged the placenta causing it to stop working.
It is something I will never now for sure though

Pre-eclampsia. Had emergency c-section at 30 weeks because my BP and protein were so high and not under control.

Maria

Waters broke at 29 weeks. Still don't know why. (She's 3 on Friday and so beautiful!)

Had an emergency c-section at 30+6 after going to hospital with 'heartburn' and slightly reduced baby movements. Turned out that I had severe Pre-Eclampsia / HELLP Syndrome and baby was IUGR.

DD is now 6 weeks old and doing well - hipefully will be out of SCBU in the next 3-5 weeks.

IUGR. No known reason. This followed a totally normal pregnancy and birth first time round. I didnt smoke or drink so doctors had no idea why. I was given a CS at 35 weeks and dd2 was just over 3lb. Went on to have ds and he was fine.... just one of those unknowns.

Incidentally, one of the reasons I'm a big fan of local midwife-led units is that I'm sure the fact that I gave birth first time round in one, was a major factor in the problems with dd2 being picked up early on. I was booked in for delivery at the midwife unit for dd2. Because antenatal care was given by a very small team of midwives, who you get to know, one of the midwives I knew from the first pregnancy suggested that something might be amiss because 'you were huge first time round and had a big baby.' She booked me in for an extra scan (the 12 week scan had been fine). I honestly believe that if I hadnt had this level of care the difficulties could have been missed. Of course, I had to have the CS in a big hospital, and dd2 was in SCBU for a month, and this made me realise that large hospitals have their place when things aren't straightforward. But I remain convinced that local, personalised care from a midwife is the best option for low risk pregnancies.

No idea, waters broke at 34+6 and was 7cm dilated by time I was examined so no going back! There are a lot of prem babies in the family though.

HEELP syndrome & PE- DS was delivered 2 hrs after diagnosis by emergency c-section at 30 weeks. Was admitted with severe epigastric pain which had been mis-diagnosed a week earlier as potential gall-stones! BP then shot through roof & my reflexes were too fast & platelets too low, by the time I was diagnosed they couldn't do anything except deliever DS. I thank my lucky stars every day that we lived in a first world country near a fab hospital & that it happened at 30 weeks and not earlier. I have heard so many stories that don't have such a happy ending.

Had PE again with DD, but milder, although she had to be another emergency c-section but this time we made it to 36 weeks and although she spent a week in NNU she was basically fine- much easier than our experience with DS!

Still don't know why I get PE...

My first was born alive at 20 weeks following 27 hours of a misdiagnosed labour and lived 3 hours. Although no official explanation, they found I have Hughes Syndrome and believe that is why. Hughes is known to damage the placenta causing the pregnancy to end between 20 and 24 weeks, but it also causes PE, PreE, HELLP, IUGR, stillbirth... there is less than 20% chance of going to term naturally.

My second was born at 31 weeks by GA ECS after I went into labour and failed to respond to the drugs. I was actually fully dilated when they took me through (which was why the rush) but I was starting to deliver a foot.

I would urge anyone who has any of the symptoms I said, especially if you have had miscarriage(s) too, to ask to be screened for Hughes (Antiphospholipid) Syndrome as it is more common than it is even heard of and causes 10% of the total pregnancy losses. It's not just a pregnancy disesase either and if you have it, it's better to know.

Short then open cervix diagnosed at 23+5 only because there was a research study going on at my local hospital. Bed rest and progesterone treatment probably helped to get me to 27+5, diagnosis meant I got steroids and also got admitted PDQ as it was not obvious I was in labour. My beautiful girl (now 2) owes her life and health to this.

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Polyhydramnios (extra fluid) so cervix could just not cope with the pressure. Was in hospital as this had been spotted and was jut waiting for it to pop. Which it did at 31 weeks, was like a dam bursting. I kept telling midwives to watch their shoes as amniotic fluid was just running off the bed.

Another one with pre-eclampsia - had symptoms of HELLP at 29 weeks but by some miracle they resolved themselves, never developed proper HELLP and hung on until 34 weeks when another episode of epigastric pain had me in the operating theatre.

Madmumnika my first bout of epigastric pain at 29 weeks was also misdiagnosed - as indigestion, breech baby, ds's foot wedged in my ribs etc etc. For TWO WEEKS!! I was really very lucky.

High blood pressure/ preeclampsia. Was in hospital for three weeks bed rest as baby was IUGR and placenta had nearly packed in. Went for a scan and found out baby hadn't grown at all in two weeks and there was an absent doppler flow. Within three hours had a c-section but didn't get to see ds until 12 hours later as my blood pressure had gone through the roof and he had rds. Was 34 weeks so again not proper prem but he was only measuring about a 30 wk old at 2lb 12.

Ds1 was stillborn 29wks due to placenta failure

DD born at 35 wks went into labour naturally but due to low water, breach, gest diabetes, and history had emergancy section

Ds2 was emergancy/ elective section at 32 wks due to placenta starting to fail and he wasnt moving much

Have 2 beautiful dc's now and am really not going through it again lol!!

BeachBunni and Lupins71, I'm sure I'm going to say this to a lot of people and get on nerves a bit lol, have you been tested for Hughes Syndrome? You both describe a Hughes pregnancy going bad and I'm glad for you both that you had positive outcomes.

I feel a little of a crusader at the moment, I'm reading a lot lately of people's experiences and seeing a lot of people who could be touching on being Hughes. If by getting on peoples nerves and mentioning it all the time I manage to get someone a positive diagnosis, I will be happy. Obviously not happy that you have one cause it's not a nice disease, but happy that it's not a hidden thing that could do a lot of damage without you realising and can be easily treated.

I know I can probably goggle it but what exactly is Hughes Syndrome? I've never heard of it before and have certainly never been tested for it.

I have never heard of it either, am off to google, tinkerbelle can you tell me more pls