My threatened preterm labour birth journey

My son is 4 months and I’m just getting around to writing this because I don’t want to forget.

I’ll preface this with saying I’ve had two miscarriages, one at 5 weeks in April 2017 and a missed miscarriage at 9 weeks in Jan 2018 and I ended up needing a d&c at 12 weeks because I started to miscarry naturally but I was losing too much blood.

Anyways, I got pregnant after one cycle (one period between d&c and finding out I was pregnant) and it was kind of mixed feelings, soo sooo happy but emotionally I wasn’t ready to deal with another potential loss. Fast forward to my first ultrasound - I finally got to see it (I had never seen an ultrasound of any of my other babies) but then I received a phone call saying the heartbeat was slow, I went to get another ultrasound a week later and thank god everything was fine. I had a fairly normal first trimester but then around 12 weeks I started getting awful SPD pain - to the point where I couldn’t walk for more than a few mins. I went to physio and it became manageable but I couldn’t do much and had to sit with lots of pillow support at work. Then I was around 23 weeks, and all of the sudden my bump disappeared and I was getting back pain. I called my midwife on a lunch break figuring my son had just changed position and was putting pressure on my back and I asked if there was any way to encourage him to change position. She asked me a ton of questions and then said she wasn’t worried but to call back if I noticed the pain was coming and going. I went back to work and noticed that it was actually coming and going and I had mild period like cramps... she was already at the hospital delivering another baby so she said to come in and get checked out just to be safe.

I went in and they strapped me to the machine. There wasn’t any activity as far as they could tell and they did a fetal fibronectin test then checked my cervix, it was firm and closed. They weren’t too concerned and said I could go when the fetal fibronectin came back. But then it came back positive, cramping increased and I was suddenly dilated to 1cm. They called around to find a level 3 nicu facility to take me, and I was transported via ambulance to that hospital.

They ran some tests, and checked again, I was now 1-2cm. I spent several hours hooked up to an NST then after several hours of no change they gave me a room in the fetal maternal medicine ward. I had an ultrasound the next day and it came back that my cervix was 12mm, it should have been 35-40mm. They gave me the steroid shots for his lungs, called in the nicu team and were saying that I should be prepared to have my son in the next few days.

I spent 2 weeks there, I had severe cramping several times but thankfully no cervical change. After 2 weeks, they did another fetal fibronectin test and it was negative, meaning I could go home - on strict bed rest until 37 weeks

I was home for a while, into the hospital at 29 weeks again because I thought my water had broken (it was pee lol) but I started having strong contractions about an hour after I got to the hospital and was again, transferred via ambulance to the other hospital. They checked my cervix and I had dilated to a 3. I had hours of contractions, and they even told me that I needed an emergency c-section as he was footling breech, but 30 mins later came back (scariest 30 mins of my life) with a plan to try some more tocolytics first. They didn’t slow the contractions much but my cervix wasn’t dilating any further. I stayed in L&D for over 24 hours before being sent back to the MFM ward. I stayed there until I was 31 weeks, they wanted to keep me until 32 (when the local hospital could deliver and care for my baby) but my cervix hadn’t changed in a while and I was ready to go home.

Things were fairly calm until 34 weeks where I went into the hospital for painful, regular contractions and since I was already 3cm they admitted me. Hours go by, no progress and contractions fizzled out so I was sent home. 35 weeks, severe upper right quadrant pain- back in hospital. 36 weeks, more contractions, dilated to a 4 but again progress halted. Meanwhile during this time, I’d have painful contractions like bent over couldn’t talk- close together for hours and hours and hours. (Prodromal labour pretty much since 23 weeks)

Then finally at 39 weeks I was offered a stretch and sweep, I was sitting then about 5 cm - I came in with contractions again since they were closer than 5 mins apart and regular for 12 hours but I hadn’t progressed. Finally my midwife offered to break my water as honestly I had had enough. I had planned a natural birth but my son was already engaged and sunny side up so there wasn’t any way I’d be able to relax my pelvis enough for him to turn naturally. They broke my water at 12, by 5 am I was 10 cm dilated and everyone got there around 5:45, I pushed for 9 mins and he was born at 5:58 am on December 28th 2018.

After everything that happened, 15 weeks of bed rest, 4 weeks in hospital and god knows how many hospital visits, being terrified he was going to be born and just over a pound all those weeks ago he came out at a beautiful 8lbs 15oz and 22 inches long 💕

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this, I hope I can give some hope to those who are currently going through the same journey.