No amniotic fluid and leaking meconium at almost 25 weeks- anyone have any answers?

[**Mia**]

Hi I had a question for anyone who may know what's going on.

My sister is almost 25 weeks pregnant and last week woke up because she started leaking amniotic fluid, she went to her midwife Saturday morning and it was confirmed and she was put on bedrest. She's continued to leak all week long and today she was taken to the hospital today by my parents and brother in law and was admitted because she leaked meconium this evening. Pretty scary stuff, but from fetal monitoring the baby appears to be fine, the thing is, I just want more information, she has all my homebirth/midwifery books at her apartment since I'm all done having my babies. She hasn't been able to get a hold of her midwife tonight and I don't know her, my midwife was my aunt whose dying of leukemia and not able to help anymore.

Does anyone know what's going on, or what to expect next? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Defenestrator]

This is not a simple problem -- I'm guessing that her care providers are probably trying to balance between the problems that a micropreemie might face and the possibility of more problems if this pregnancy continues.

Chances are the meconium is from cord compression (baby got stressed when the cord was pinched) because of the low amniotic fluid. There really could be any number of reasons for it, though.

In my area, common treatment for ruptured membranes this early would be admittance to the hospital, antibiotics, and full bedrest , possibly with the foot of the bed elevated so that the amniotic fluid wouldn't leak out of the sac (using gravity to keep it in). There are homebirth midwives who have treated premature rupture of membranes with home bedrest and herbs -- there is a woman here on MDC who had her membranes rupture pretty early -- 31 weeks I believe? who was treated at home and went on to have her baby at term.

What a stressful situation. I hope that things start to look up for your sister and her baby.

[**Mia**]

Thanks so much for your response, you've helped me understand more of what's going on with them.

[RachelGS]

How are things going now?

[**Mia**]

Well a quick update, she's still in the hospital, going to be kept there until she's 34 weeks at least if all goes well, she's stopped gushing the fluid and I think whatever was going on is clearing up with the antibiotics. The baby's still strong and kicking like crazy, she doesn't like the fetal monitor bugging her. We're just hoping for the best, her doctor told her there's a 99.9% chance that she'll be having a caesarean since the baby is breech and she's still low on amniotic fluid, but they still don't know why the issue with the amniotic fluid is happening. Thanks for the concern Rachel!

[Celina2]

Prayers for your sister, her babe and your whole family.

Celina