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Pre-term Rupture of Membranes Thank you to everyone for your well wishes, prayers, and congratulations while I was in hospital. God was so good to surround us with such a witness of faithful believers who upheld us in prayer during that time. Those prayers were answered with a safe outcome for our baby, and me. I am very thankful. I know that an answer to prayer doesn’t always come in a form we expect or want, and at times it is scary to pray “Lord, Your will be done, not mine.” Thankfully, the Lord spared us an unwanted outcome. I know people have been waiting for the full account of our hospital stay, so I will try to post it in stages, as I am able. Right now, baby is sleeping peacefully, so I have a moment to start the keyboard rolling. At thirty-five (plus three days) weeks, my waters broke. I awoke at 3.45am, just to turn over in bed, or so I thought, when I felt some sort of a leak. My first thought was the baby must have jumped on my bladder and I hadn’t been doing effective pelvic floor exercises, thus the leak. I managed to jump out of bed before I wet the mattress — a not-so-easy-feat so late in pregnancy. The floor didn’t get out of it so lightly. After a shower and an intermittent feeling of gushing, I decided maybe my bladder wasn’t so weak after all. My waters had ruptured. Rupture of membranes is a good sign— if you are full term. I phoned my midwife and we decided to meet in Delivery Suite at 5.00am. Jessica was sleeping in the bedroom next to ours while we had my Mum and Dad staying, so she jumped out of bed to pack a few last minute things in my suitcase. We tried to keep it quiet so as not to wake anyone. I didn’t want any of the little children overtired while we were gone. The girls would have enough on their plate managing the household without adding grumpy boys into the bargain. I was nervous and had to calm myself with a few deep breaths before we left. The adrenaline was pumping. I didn’t have any contractions at this stage but they came soon enough once we were in the car and moving. I felt totally dehydrated and had to drink, drink, drink. When the waters that surround your baby break, your body keeps replenishing them, which is why I felt so thirsty, and why I felt so wet. I must have changed my outfit three times before I could leave the house. I used a newborn disposable nappy, but it couldn’t keep up with the flow. While driving we realised the significance of the date. Four years ago, on this day, we travelled into the same hospital to give birth to our stillborn daughter, Grace. Last time it was an emergency with an unexpected and unwanted outcome. We prayed constantly that it would be a different outcome this time. It seemed likely we could have this baby on Grace’s birthday. God had a plan; we just didn’t know what it was. On arrival at the hospital, we were shown into a small room to have all the necessary observations performed. My blood pressure was up but that was due to all the adrenaline I was pumping, because I was worried. This showed up on the monitor with baby’s heartbeat excited as well. Contractions were about two and a half minutes apart. An obstetrician did an ultrasound to check on baby’s position. Head down— good. I started this pregnancy with the same We were moved into a delivery room with a lounge and I was hooked up to the monitor again. John and I tried to sleep, but sleep evaded me. Later on, a neonatal doctor came to speak with us about what we could expect from a thirty-five week old baby. Complications really depend on the baby’s size and lung maturity. Given that I have a history of big babies, it seemed unlikely that this little one would be overly small, which meant less problems after the birth. A pre-term baby is usually admitted to the special care nursery, placed on a drip with formula or glucose water and oxygen is used to help establish regular breathing patterns. The doctors decided not to induce labour if the contractions stopped; they wanted to wait until baby was ready to come, hopefully at thirty-seven weeks. The doctors were worried I wasn’t taking the antibiotics, so we compromised and decided on the oral ones. I was concerned that such large doses of intravenous drugs couldn’t be good for an early baby. There just haven’t been enough studies done to show the effect on pre-term babies, some studies even question their safety. At this stage the contractions had slowed right down and a bed became available in the antenatal/gynaecology ward, so we moved again. I was given a single room, for which I am thankful. The staff thought that a mother of so many children deserved a bit of peace and quiet. I don’t know how they imagine a hospital to be peaceful or quiet, but I did appreciate their kind intentions. And, I was pleased to have somewhere private for the few good cries I needed. It was in this room that we waited it out. At first I thought I would be there for a day or two, but it soon became clear I could be there ten days or more. To Be Continued… |
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