Cervical suture and stronger cervix?

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April 7th, 2010, 09:24 PM
Deedles

Cervical suture and stronger cervix?

I have recently given birth to my 3rd DS and I am so amazed that It was such an easy and uncomplicated pregnancy.

The reason I say this is, with my first pregnancy everything was going great or so I thought.
It wasn't until 20 weeks when I started feeling period like cramps and after hours of being in pain headed for the hospital, only to find out that bub was on his way too soon.

The doctors put it down to just plain old bad luck and that my next pregnancy should go fine.
So a year later I find out that I am pregnant again and get up to 20 weeks without any problems and then made it to 22 weeks and started to feel a bit more confident about the pregnancy. Then I went for an appointment with an Ob who asked me why I hadn't gotten a scan of my cervix as they thought it could have been a big factor in why I delivered at 20 wks. So off I go to get the scan and when I went the lady said it was looking rather short.

So the next day they rush me into theatre and put in a cervical suture and I made it to 37 wks when they removed it. Then went into labour at 38 wks.

Now with my last pregnancy I was told early on that I would need the stitch put in again and I should get a scan every 2 weeks to see how it was looking.
After 12 weeks I saw a different Ob and she said my cervix was looking great and that they would put off placing the suture as it isn't even proven that it will be effective.
I ended up making it all the way to 38 weeks with no intervention at all and at my last cervical scan at 28 weeks showed that my cervix was actually longer?

Can the suture actually help strengthen up the cervix? I am just confused as to having a short cervix for 2 pregnancies but not for the 3rd?
April 8th, 2010, 01:28 PM
crumpet

i cant help with answering ur question but ill be following this as ive got cervical incompatance so will be having a stitch when i end up UTD..
April 8th, 2010, 02:00 PM
*Beema*

I don't know if the suture actually strengthens the cervix or not, but am intrested in this thread as I am currently being scanned for an IC, I am already on the low end of the scale, first scan was 2.5cm and the second was 2.79cm, not very good for the start of a pregnancy, so hoping that there is a good length in the next scan next week.

What cervix lengths were you getting at each of your scans?
April 8th, 2010, 02:54 PM
crumpet

:

I don't know if the suture actually strengthens the cervix or not, but am intrested in this thread as I am currently being scanned for an IC, I am already on the low end of the scale, first scan was 2.5cm and the second was 2.79cm, not very good for the start of a pregnancy, so hoping that there is a good length in the next scan next week.

What cervix lengths were you getting at each of your scans?

beema, not sure if u meant me or not but at 12weeks i measured 2.5cm like u....
i was put on bed rest for 2 weeks and ended up at 3.5cm.... so the bed rest was relaxed but still the "be careful" orders...
follow up scan at 18weeks and had hit 3.4cm so OB was happy....
when in at 20weeks and had dropped back to 2.4cm..... full bed rest again...
21 weeks had a off day called OB and went to the office and sure enough my cervix had started to give in and my waters were buldging.....into hospy on total bed rest, no getting up for anything, ended up with an infection and delivered at 22weeks.....

my OB has advised my cervix is in a cruddy state.... he said he would have expected ot see someone who had had 6-7 terminations, or cone biospsies done or multiple D&C's with a cervix like mine but ive had none of that......im just one of those unlucky ppl with a cr@p cervix.....

ill be having a stitch put in at 13 weeks when i get preg and then removed at 37weeks....

HTH helps

feel free to PM me if u need to ask anything!

good luck for ur scan hope all is travelling along ok!!!!
April 8th, 2010, 04:00 PM
*Beema*

Thankyou for sharing your measurements crumpet, I can't imagine how scary it must have been for you :hug: It really shows how quickly things can change :(

My OB is concerned that I may have an IC as went into labour early and I progressed so quickly with DD, with minimal pain I was 7-8cm on arrival to hospital which was 45 minutes after my contractions started, waters had broken 45 min prior to ctx starting. She is concerned that I won't make it in time..... so it is just a bit of a waiting game for me, as we want to prolong the pregnancy as long as we can and she wants to do the suture between 12-16 weeks, but as I still have retained "product" from the loss of Flicker's Twin we are in limbo as we can do the suture if it is required while it is still there :wall: And on top of that I have a subseptate uterus which is known for premature births - gee got a lot going for me to get to term ;)
April 9th, 2010, 09:14 AM
crumpet

:

Thankyou for sharing your measurements crumpet, I can't imagine how scary it must have been for you :hug: It really shows how quickly things can change :(

My OB is concerned that I may have an IC as went into labour early and I progressed so quickly with DD, with minimal pain I was 7-8cm on arrival to hospital which was 45 minutes after my contractions started, waters had broken 45 min prior to ctx starting. She is concerned that I won't make it in time..... so it is just a bit of a waiting game for me, as we want to prolong the pregnancy as long as we can and she wants to do the suture between 12-16 weeks, but as I still have retained "product" from the loss of Flicker's Twin we are in limbo as we can do the suture if it is required while it is still there :wall: And on top of that I have a subseptate uterus which is known for premature births - gee got a lot going for me to get to term ;)

no worries hun hope it helped slightly......

yeah things happened very quickly but full credit to my OB who did everything he could to prolong things......

oh wow its all very full on for u isnt it?!?!?! i hope they can sort something out for u!!
they cant get the retained product out can they?
April 9th, 2010, 09:41 AM
*Beema*

Your response has helped emensely :hug:, I will be chatting with my OB about it more detail at our next appointment on the 19th, even if the cervix is closer to 3cm I am thinking of asking her it we just do the suture anyway...

Unfortuntaly with the retained product we have no other way of removal, it either has to come out as a bleed or be absorbed. It has been about 2 weeks since I have had a bleed, and the scan after that one showed quite a lot to go, had also shown that I had lost a lot, but the clots had dissolved more, which is a good thing and increases the chance that it could be reabsorbed.

It is a bit full on but I have the best OB I could have and she is brilliant and highly respected and made it to DD's birth which was a mircale in itself :)
April 9th, 2010, 09:51 AM
crumpet

:

Your response has helped emensely :hug:, I will be chatting with my OB about it more detail at our next appointment on the 19th, even if the cervix is closer to 3cm I am thinking of asking her it we just do the suture anyway...

Unfortuntaly with the retained product we have no other way of removal, it either has to come out as a bleed or be absorbed. It has been about 2 weeks since I have had a bleed, and the scan after that one showed quite a lot to go, had also shown that I had lost a lot, but the clots had dissolved more, which is a good thing and increases the chance that it could be reabsorbed.

It is a bit full on but I have the best OB I could have and she is brilliant and highly respected and made it to DD's birth which was a mircale in itself :)

oh good! :) my OB has said i have no choice its stitch or no babies so ill be on the stitch band wagon for sure!!! lol..... i think its a good idea especially if they think its caused DD early arrival.....

hmmm thats a bugger bout the retained product.... will they do the stitch if there is still some there or wait till its dissolved more?

oh its good to have a fab OB hey?!?!?! where abouts are u?
April 9th, 2010, 10:16 AM
*Beema*

No stitch until it is gone, it is too dangerous to "trap" it, could lead to infections etc... so it has to be dissolved or out, so I am hoping my scan next week shows it has been absorbed :crossfingers:

It is definitely worth having a good OB in situations like ours, a friend in WA, was public and just couldn't get anyone to listen to her concerns after her last two bubs had been 35 and then 28 weeks, due to IC, by the time someone listened and she saw a high risk OB, they did a stitch at 23 weeks, her cervix was 22mm and funnelling and her DS was born at 25 weeks :( He is 37 weeks gestation now, but had a very long difficult journey in NICU. Her journey has also been on my mind and I feel so terribly that she had to fight so hard to get someone to listen and when they did it was to late for the stitch to make a real difference.

I am in SA, but have a lot of family on the Central Coast and Newcastle area :)
April 9th, 2010, 10:20 AM
crumpet

:

No stitch until it is gone, it is too dangerous to "trap" it, could lead to infections etc... so it has to be dissolved or out, so I am hoping my scan next week shows it has been absorbed :crossfingers:

It is definitely worth having a good OB in situations like ours, a friend in WA, was public and just couldn't get anyone to listen to her concerns after her last two bubs had been 35 and then 28 weeks, due to IC, by the time someone listened and she saw a high risk OB, they did a stitch at 23 weeks, her cervix was 22mm and funnelling and her DS was born at 25 weeks :( He is 37 weeks gestation now, but had a very long difficult journey in NICU. Her journey has also been on my mind and I feel so terribly that she had to fight so hard to get someone to listen and when they did it was to late for the stitch to make a real difference.

I am in SA, but have a lot of family on the Central Coast and Newcastle area :)

i thought u might say that about the retained product..... i developed a infection and thats why i ended up delivering, my OB was under the impression that if i didnt get the infection and i was in hospy with my butt eleveated on total bed rest i might have got through a bit longer......

oh wow ur poor friend...... after the stress of the pregnancy and then the thought of a NICU journey makes me so sad for her......

it makes me very glad im a private patient, coz ur friends story would be my greatest fear of having this problem and being a public patient.....

ooh ok, im in melb
April 9th, 2010, 10:22 AM
Deedles

HI ladies,

It seems that IC is more common than I first thought. When I would talk to the midwives about it at my appointments they didn't really know anything about it.

When I had my 2nd DS and they put the stitch in it was at 22 weeks and highly risky as apparently after 23 weeks they would refuse to do it as there is a high risk of rupturing membranes and breaking your waters.
My cervix for DS2 measured 2.3 cm which was quite short and after they put the stitch in I was on complete bed rest and wasn't aloud to stand up for longer than 30mins at one time.

With my DS3 my cervix measured over 3 cm at each scan, so I am not sure what happened there??

Beema and crumpet I hope that you have both managed to understand your condition a bit better.
You both just have to make decisions that you are comfortable with and trust your ob.
Hope you find out what is happening soon Beema so you can get the stitch done and relax a bit more through the rest of your pregnancy, which is easier said than done. Being pregnant is amazing but it is also a bit of a worrying time.