Planning for next pregnancy

[whistle]

I'm just thinking ahead massively. Hubby and I have decided to TTC again sometime next year. My first pregnancy last year resulted in an emergency cervical suture at 22 weeks, and caesarean delivery of non-identical twins at just shy of 25 weeks after I got chorioamnionitis. When I was discharged I was told that next time I would be under the consultants from the beginning, regardless of circumstances, and OH and I would really like to discuss this all with them before we come off birth control.

I know that some of you ladies have had this chat - how did you go about it? Did you call the hospital direct? Did your GP refer you? Or did you go to the midwife at your GP surgery to be referred?

Thankyou in advance.

 

[25weeker]

Hi - our stories are pretty similar as I had an emergency stitch placed at 21+5 after they discovered at 21 weeks I was dilated with membranes bulging. At 25+2 I got chorioamnionitis which triggered my labour. I asked my GP for a referral to see a consultant in Dec and I got an appointment for April which I had to change since I was on holiday and eventually went to see her in May. It wasn't the consultant who dealt with me from 21 weeks as I had my girls in England but live in Scotland.

The consultant from England wrote a letter to my GP detailing what happened and steps they took which she had a copy off. Basically I was told the preterm could have been caused by being a twin pregnancy, incompetent cervix or an infection which was brewing causing my dilation.

She told me I have to ring her secretary once I am about 9-10 weeks pregnant to make her aware. If it is a single pregnancy she will want to see me from 16 weeks and will do swabs to check for infection and from 20 weeks cervical scans. She said these would be done weekly, fortnightly depending on the results at the time. She did not recommend putting a cervical stitch in straight away because she said a twin pregnancy is so much more pressure on your body than a single because everything happens much faster which I suppose is true as none of my clothes fitted me by 15 weeks!

If I had another twin pregnancy then we would discuss after my 12 week scan whether to put a stitch in or not. Although she said their preference is bed rest rather than stitches but I would probably push for one.

3 months later we still haven't decided if we are going to try

Good luck xx

 

[whistle]

Thankyou so much, this is really, really useful. For one thing I hadn't factored in how long it might take to get an appointment. Even with all the info it's a tough decision, isn't it? I think my worst nightmare would be for history to repeat itself but for it to be even worse with the added strain of being away from my eldest son for weeks on end or coping with another loss with a toddler around.

But thankyou, this answers my question perfectly.

Good luck with your own decision xx