The Pregnancy, and Birth of Catherine Briar Thurgood

Story so far:

This was never an uneventful pregnancy. Following a miscarriage last year, the infection that followed that landed me back in hospital during our "get over it" holiday, an unexplained mass that turned out to be an ovarian cyst, a laparoscopy and hysteroscopy to remove some endometriosis and aforementioned cyst, and finally a chemical pregnancy, I thought getting pregnant was the hard part. I was wrong!

I had regular bleeding right up until 12 weeks which is stressful enough for anyone. But then Bethan caught measles at 9 weeks and despite me having had it as a child and also the jab, I caught it from her. Measles has a high risk of miscarriage, but somehow baby survived. Then dad died suddenly at 12 weeks, as did a very dear friend - I'm sure baby enjoyed the stress hormones from that.

Thinking the worst was over, we set off for the USA at 16 weeks (fun in itself to organise) as Steve had a new job which required 7 weeks of training over there. Whether it was my cynicism, a bad feeling, or just worry after seeing others have awful news at their big scan - maybe all three - but for peace of mind I booked a scan for 18 weeks and 3 days with a private clinic in the US.

Baby was fine, but I still felt that wasn't the end of it. As a final thing, the sonographer checked my cervix. Instead of the expected 3-5cm length, it was 3mm, and I was dilated 1.5cm. The doctors quickly arrived and told me that if I did not have an emergency cerclage (stitch) inserted to try to hold the baby in, it was possible I could deliver in as little as 48 hours. Thankfully, our travel insurance was good!

I had the stitch in that evening - baby was feet down inside my funneled cervix and close to starting to bulge out. She had to be pushed back up with a special balloon, then the stitch was secured in place.

I was prescribed progesterone injections which were given weekly, and also nifedipine which calms an irritable (contraction-prone) uterus although once the progesterone injections started working, I no longer needed it.

I spent 8 nights in the hospital on strict bedrest (stay as horizontal as possible - only allowed up for the bathroom) then I was discharged, with the instructions to stay on strict bedrest until at least 34 weeks. I spent the final week at our US apartment, then we were all emergency repatriated back to the UK in First Class so I could be kept horizontal!

Once back in the UK, my contractions picked up and I spent a night in hospital to be monitored - turns out I had a UTI which antibiotics cured. I was signed sick off work for the remainder of the pregnancy, and transferred my care to a hospital with experts in premature labour and stitches. With their advice from about 28 weeks I gradually increased my activity although I never walked more than a few hundred yards even right at the end.

I also developed SPD around 20 weeks, which meant that even if I could, I was unable to walk any distance. I regained some freedom by hiring a wheelchair much later on but essentially I was confined to the house.

I went for periodic checks on my stitch and it remained firmly in place with a good cervical length of 2 to 2.5cm throughout. It was doing its job!

At 32 weeks my first daughter Bethan had an injury at nursery which led to her needing a general anaesthetic and seven stitches in her lip and cheek. That set off contractions but thankfully they went no further.

At 34w3d, Bethan had a follow-up appointment to check on her injury. Whilst we were in the waiting room, I noticed my contractions were getting quite regular so before we went home, I decided to pop over to the labour ward to get them checked out. Sure enough, they were frequent and strong, so they admitted me and monitored me.

After an hour they decided to give me steroid injections to help baby's lungs, and tried patches to stop labour. This seemed to have no effect except to make the contractions more regular and painful. After two hours, the decision was taken to remove my cerclage after 16 weeks of wonderful service! Time for yet another spinal. The first doctor was unable to remove the stitch despite the instructions that came with it as it was done so well, so they had to call in a very senior doctor to do it, who did it very quickly!

The morning after my stitch came out, I realised that my hindwaters (the bit between baby and the way out - not the whole lot) had probably gone. As a result I was kept in the hospital to check for infection, and this is where this part of the story begins!

Pregnancy in numbers:

16 weeks - the length of time the stitch lasted - it was never predicted to last more than 8-10 weeks and I was told by every doctor to expect a very premature baby.

17 weeks and 1 day of bedrest (120 days)

18 scans, although most were very brief.

15 nights in hospital whilst pregnant; 8 in the US.

6 nights in hospital whilst not pregnant, but related to getting pregnant.

28 days spent in hospital to get this baby, 21 of them whilst pregnant.

5 operations - two general anaesthetics and three spinals.

6lb 14oz (3.118kg) birth weight

11:38AM 15th November, 2008 - time of birth

0 - amount of uncooked stilton consumed.

1 - healthy baby girl.