My experience with Premature Rupture of the Membranes

At nineteen years old I found myself to be a Mother to a toddler and pregnant with my second son. Pretty scary right? Even though having a second child was very planned, I didn’t expect it to happen so soon! My first-born was only five months when I fell pregnant with baby number two and for a while, everything was plain sailing. I never expected to go into premature labour!

My first pregnancy went pretty well. Very routine, sure, it ended up in a 36 hr labour followed by an emergency c-section but that’s OK. We dealt with that. Overall it was still a pretty routine pregnancy & labour. However, what I wasn’t expecting was the pain of carrying a bump following a c-section just five months prior.

After a trip to my midwife I was fitted with a maternity belt – which, if you’ve ever worn one, you’ll know what I am talking about. It’s an elasticated belt that goes underneath your bump, wraps over your hips and over the top of the bump. It’s like a harness, but for your bump. Its job was to keep as much of the weight from my bump {as possible}, off my caesarean scar, which was still very fresh. 

So there I was, 15wks pregnant & sporting a very sexy piece of pregnancy wear {it was even beige! All the glamour!} and for a few weeks, things continued as normal. 

One morning, I was bathing my son {no doubt there was an explosive nappy incident!} and I felt a trickle downstairs. My first thought was “Oh, OK…so my bladder is taking a beating” and put it down to just one of the many things we Mums have to deal with during this whole Motherhood journey. The trickling continued throughout the morning, so I paid a visit to my local hospital. Having never experienced any previous pregnancy complications or premature labour, so I was nervous. There were also many pregnancy complications that I wasn’t aware of at the time. 

They didn’t have any ultrasound machines in my hospital, so I was asked to lie down and the nurse used a doppler on my bump to check the baby. The air around me – or in our curtained-off cubicle at least – went very quiet. I couldn’t hear the baby’s heartbeat, so I knew she couldn’t either and then she said it…“I cannot find a heartbeat” followed swiftly with “I’ll be right back” and off she went beyond the curtain. 

She returned shortly after and handed me a letter, along with a leaflet. I cannot remember what the leaflet was about because I was too shock about not only her words, but the instructions to give this letter to another Doctor at another hospital. And that was it. I left. I was taken in an ambulance as I guess they figured I wasn’t an emergency case. 

Long story short, I was found by a friend, crying my heart out on my short walk home. I poured my heart out and before I knew I was being taken to another hospital. I was quickly admitted, given test after test but when I had that gel squeezed onto my bump, about to get an ultrasound, I held my breath. But, as soon as it touched my bump, there it was…a heartbeat and then I saw my baby! He was just fine and at that moment I could not even explain to you my relief. 

However, then came another blow. Apparently, the cause of my ‘trickling’ was due to premature rupture of the membranes {PROM}. Which is the leaking of amniotic fluid from around your baby. I was asked to look at the ultrasound and I was shown the lack of fluid that was around my son. Then came the words “I’m sorry to have to tell you but he has about a 40% survival rate and your chances of miscarriage, are high”. My second blow of the day. 

I was 19 wks gestation and a baby can only have a chance at survival outside the womb from 26wks. So, I was placed on immediate bed rest. To help prevent premature labour, I had instructions of minimal movement. Even a sneeze could lessen the fluid from around my son. So I made it my goal to keep him safe and warm and alive for as long as I possibly could. 

It was a long week of lying in bed, watching the most expensive hospital TV imaginable {with only a handful of channels!}. I had multiple internals performed daily as well as having many blood samples taken and getting daily scans to check on his fluid levels. I have to admit, the level of care we got was amazing. Even though I was told his chances weren’t great. I certainly wasn’t going to give up, regardless of the chances he was given and it was nice to see they weren’t giving up on him either.

After a week of bed rest and countless tests and checks, I was told that I could go home. More importantly, my son was hanging in there! Yes, he had a lot less amniotic fluid in there than normal, but he was adapting to that like a champion. My chances of going into premature labour were lessening by the day. 

At home, I continued my bedrest, admittedly with a toddler this was not easy, but I managed it. As the weeks passed and I reached that all-important 26th-week mark, I started to breathe a little easier. However, I developed premature rupture of the membranes once again at 34wks gestation and my son was born prematurely. 

He was born weighing 6lbs on the nose – which is quite big for a preemie. Thank goodness he came out when he did, I dread to think what weight he would have been if he held on for a while longer! However, were there any complications with his health? Yes, there was. Due to the lack of amniotic fluid in the womb, he did come out with a bacterial infection, which I contracted also. This was due to the rupture in my amniotic sac, which allows infections to occur. So for an extra week-long stay in the hospital, we had matching IV drips for our antibiotics. 

Following our week in the hospital, I was able to bring my tiny little premature man, home. The baby who I thought I lost at the doppler test. The newborn I was told I could miscarry. The little boy who was only given a 40% survival rate and the Mama carrying him refusing to give up. I’ve never stayed so still, for so long in my life! Afraid to breathe, move, cough or sneeze. But we made it and to look at him now, on the cusp of being Nineteen – I honestly could not be more proud. 

We did it, little man, we did it!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about Updating your home to suit your growing family on the blog. 

*This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Emma’s Diary