My story of PPROM by mum Kirsty

My little girl Zoe was born at 24 weeks & 3 days, weighing 1lb 9oz.

My waters suddenly went at home at 5 in the morning, my husband was getting ready for work at this point. At first I thought I was bleeding, I ran to the toilet where I saw water & I knew straight away what it was. I called my local hospital & we dropped our eldest daughter to my parents & headed for the hospital.

When we arrived it was confirmed that my waters had gone. I started getting contractions every 3-5 minutes & then midwives looking after me looked panicked. I was asking them is my baby going to be ok?

They said they was going to transfer me to a hospital who could deal with a premature baby as early as my daughter. My local hospital only delivers babies arriving from 28 weeks. They called lots of hospitals including Liverpool, Manchester, Scotland. We live in Essex so I was praying that it wasn't going to be any of them. A hospital in Kent called back & said they had a bed for me & my baby girl.

When we arrived the doctors & midwives tried to reassure me that my baby could stay put & they would do all they can to make that happen. I was put on a drip by this point to stop the contractions & they went quite quickly so I felt much more hopeful. Unfortunately a doctor came to scan me to see how much fluid I had lost, I saw my beautiful girl laying there moving around & begged she would stay put.

I looked at the doctors face & it dropped she looked at me & said the baby's head is down. She checked my cervix & was 10cm. I had no pain, pressure because of the drip. I was devastated & broke down in my husbands arms. My heart broke. This was at 6pm.

The doctors told me that all the team of doctors & midwives were on stand by as soon as I feel any pressure or pain. I didn't.

By 8.45pm the doctor told me to push & at 9.43pm on the 19th February 2016 our beautiful Zoe was born.

Zoe at 24 weeks & 3 days