PREM Labour, tests they can do and drugs they can give

[marie Ethan's mum]

I know a few of us have experanced PREM labour epecially on the twins board so thought I post this here

I went in to unexplained premature labour at 24+3 day with my twins ethan and erin .

I had been experiencing mild ''braxton hicks '' as I thought for about one week before , they were very irregular so wasn't worried ,just thought they were the practice ones I had with all my other babies , but on this day I had some mild spotting so went to my local Mat unit to get checked out , that bleed saved my babies lives really or I would have deliveried them at home alone and they would not of had a chance at all .

They scanned me as soon as I arrived as they could get heart beats on the  hand hald machines because both babies were being too active and they couldn't get a trace. they check my bleeding and then took swobs to check for infection.  they also did a special swob to check for a hormone that is only present when in true labour,(trying to find out official name will update as soon as I have it)  they had to hold this swob interally for 1 minute and then had the results back within half an hour . I wasn't told this at the time so not to panic me  but the result told them my babies would be born within 24 hours if they didn't do something

They transferred me to labour ward and starting ringing local hospitals to find two intensive neonatal cots.  they gave me a  drug call nephatapine Blood pressure proven to slow and if lucky stop  labour . I was three cm at this point.

they gave me steriod injections to help develop my babies  lungs and I was not allowed to get up of the bed .as the nephatapine had lowered my blood pressure to much because had low blood pressure anyway ...sods law ...

this gave the doctors enough chance to transfer me to a specialist hospital and give the steriods the 24 hour they had to have to get any benefit.

after this my blood pressure was so low that they had to stop the drug and let me progress with my labour , as to keep going with the drug would endanger my health because of my already low blood pressure

so at 24 +4 weeks my twins came crashing into my world with a bit of a bump as I have posted in other threads,

just wanted to post this so anyone pregnant or TTC can see there is things that could be done . prem labour is possible to delay if you are lucky .although i believe they can't actually stop it ,but it is possible to delay for several hours even weeks ....



I will find out the name of the swob so anyone considered can ask for it if the problem arises

[GillyF]

Thanks, Marie. This is incredibly interesting.

Obviously, it's not comfortable reading when you've been through a very premature birth and lost a baby as a result, but at the very least it gives you information that you might be able to pass on.

I confess I'm feeling rather odd - not angry, just most uncomfortable. I had a very difficult pregnancy; I started bleeding at 7 weeks, (2 hours after twins were diagnosed), and again at 13 weeks (it lasted over 3 weeks.) So I was really concerned about a very premature birth and read everything I could find. I had 2 twins books (1 UK, 1 US), a pregnancy book, and I scoured the net, yet I never knew anything could be done to slow things down. I was rushed to hospital at 28 weeks because I started bleeding again, and in the 2 weeks I was there, bouncing between the delivery suite and the ward, no one ever said that I could be given drugs if labour started. On the contrary, the signs on the monitors were always dismissed, even right up to the time I was way gone. "We thought you were just constipated!" the midwife said to me when I bumped into her months later.

Clearly, women presenting with early signs of labour need better information than they're currently getting.

Thanks again.

Gilly

[TotalEclipse - Bianca]

Marie I think it might be fybronectin the test you are thinking of.
I had the fybronectin test done several times and it shows them if you are likely to go into labour within the next week or so