Cervix Nightmare

[LouisecH]

Hi Everyone

This is my official graduation to the second trimester message board (hurray) but not the happiest.

I went for my first hospital appointment on Friday and discovered that I was born with a very short cervix (this was discovered after I voiced concerns about laser treament for CIN 2 3 yrs ago). This means that apparently from 17 wks onwards I could go into spontaneous labour without any warnings or contractions.

The good news is that they sometimes don't discover this problem until it's too late but now I can be monitored weekly with scans to see what happens. If my cervix starts to dilate I need a cervical cerclage (stich) to stop the baby coming out but will probably still give birth a few weeks early.

Anyone else been/going through this?

Louise

 

[minikins]

Sorry have not been through this although I have been told I have a 'diddy utereus', but nothing for me to worry about, probably just more pain later

Good luck with it all

 

[Manda]

Hi Louise,

I know what you're going through hun, i'm going through it too but i have now reached a stage where baby has a good chance of surviving and it's such a relief.

I had a cone biopsy done on my cervix 5 years ago cos i had pre cancerous cells, because of this my midwife said that i needed to see the dr to see if i could carry on with all midwife care or whether it had to be split between dr and midwife, at 17 weeks i saw the dr and they told me i was at risk of incompetent cervix, so i started having scans done every 2 weeks and sure enough my cervix was shortening it went from 2cm before exercise to 1.5 cm after 15 mins of walking, i was an emotional wreck, i spent all my time from 17 -24 weeks led down and only left the house to go to hospital appointments, i was advised to go on the sick from work but due to just emigrating i'm not working anyway, everytime i went to the drs i would end up crying it's such a stressful time, and i think the worst think was that it might happen and there not be any symptoms this really scared me.

The relief when i got to 24 weeks was unbelievable cos i knew the baby had a good chance of surviving i have now got to 27 weeks and have only just started buying baby stuff as i didn't know what would happen - i know it's not nice to think like that but i couldn't have handled having all baby stuff around if things did go wrong.

At the begining it was suggested for me to have a stitch done but i was told there were risks with this including miscarriage, bleeding and infections so i decided i needed time to think as i had already suffered one miscarriage last year and quite a bit of bleeding with this pregnancy. they kept monitoring my cervix and when i got to 24 weeks they said they were happy just to monitor me as having the stitch done could cause premature labour in itself, they also told me that if i did go into premature labour that they would have to take the stitch straight out because baby would find another way out if the cervix was stitched and therefore unable to open, i'm glad i've managed to get this far without having the stitch done and it's one less thing to srtress over when i do go into labour, the risk of me going into premature labour is still really high so i'm still taking it easy, my next scan is on 2nd Aug so will let you know how i get on.

If you are working consider going on the sick, i know it's boring being stuck at home but it'll be worth it in the end, also don't do any heavy lifting and get someone to help you with the house work and shopping.

Good luck let me know how you get on

manda x x

 

[LouisecH]

Thanks for your replies girls, it's nice to know i'm not alone!

Manda - what a nightmare. I keep hoping they'll tell me it's short but tough!

I didn't want to have the stich and I'm still in two minds about it now. I really don't like the sound of the baby 'finding another way out' - the mind boggles!

I guess I'll just have to hang in there and see what they say on Friday. I'll keep you posted.

Louisex

PS. Manda - I love your scan picture.