Hannah Morris, 27 year old from Washington was shattered when she lost her amniotic fluid, medically named preterm pre-labour rupture of the membranes (PPROM) which happens in expectant mothers who are less than 37 weeks pregnant.
Hannah claims that an E. coli infection that a midwife decided not to treat may have instigated her waters to break 24 weeks early.
Hannah Morris, the mother of three acted on her instinct and refused to follow the doctors’ advice to abort regardless of allegedly being told her babies would either die or be disabled.
For the rest of her pregnancy after being identified with PPROM, Hannah drank eight litres of water a day and stayed in bed to avoid losing any more fluid. At 34 weeks into her pregnancy, she gave birth to George and Alfie King via C-section and both are now hale and hearty and turn two year old.
Hannah and her partner, Mark King blamed that the negativity from the NHS was completely horrible as the doctors there had not got a clue what to do with her condition. The couple felt that doctors found it simply easy to say to have an abortion because it was easier than to actually treat PPROM.
Women’s waters generally break around the time labour is due at 37 weeks but in around two per cent of pregnancies they break early for several reasons. This causes early labour in many women but around six per cent of women do not give birth straight away. But the risk of maternal and foetal infection surges the longer the time between membrane rupture and the onset of labour.
Hannash said that the sympathy that NHS had in that situation was so cold and so negative that when she was trying to fight for her babies’ lives it felt like they just didn’t care. If she had listened to those doctors she would have terminated her pregnancy and her twins wouldn’t be in this world.
Recollecting the moments, the couple were over the moon when they found out they were going to have twins.
A urine sample taken at Hannah’s 12-week scan revealed that she had an E. coli infection. But Hannah claims that the midwife opted not to offer antibiotics to her because she didn’t have symptoms and instead believing the infection would go away on its own. Hannah revealed that if the midwife would have just given her three days of antibiotics at the beginning then her water would not have broken.
Hannah accused that everything just comes back to that one midwife not treating her for the infection well in time. She think that the midwife has made a massive error in judgement but then the NHS in itself has such a negative outlook on PPROM and they also don’t know what the protocol is.
Hannah’s waters broke a few weeks later and she was hurried to hospital in Bolton. The couple were broken-hearted when they were warned that neither child had any chance of surviving because they were vulnerable to infection. After an internal examination, doctor told her that her waters had broken and nothing they could do for the couple under this situation.
Hannah said that for some reason that is even not known to her, she did not want to go by the doctor’s advice. Her instinct was constantly telling her not to follow the advice. Though she knew nothing about PPROM but she just rejected all the medical advice. She was firm that if she is going to lose her babies them she will them naturally and let nature take its course.
After Hannah’s decision, the doctor left her in a side room and not one single doctor or nurses or healthcare professionals came to see her for 48 hours. They just left the couple to miscarry their babies.
But after two days of waiting in hospital to miscarry, a scan revealed that both babies appeared healthy and the couple were sent home. On reaching home, the couple decided to do their own research.
Hannah turned to voluntary organisation Little Heartbeats for support and decided to put herself on bed rest to give her babies the best chance of survival. She would lose water every time she moved and found even simple tasks such as going to the toilet extremely difficult. She avoided baths and swimming pools and drank up to eight litres of water a day to keep her water supplies as replenished as possible.
The situation was extremely challenging for the family but each week they were reassured by a scan that showed that the babies were healthy and pushed them to carry on.
But Hannah claims that the doctors repeatedly told her that it was unlikely the babies’ vital organs would develop properly and their limbs would be stuck together. But against all the odds, Hannah made it to 34 weeks and planned a C-section with her doctors.
George was born first weighing 5lbs 4oz and Alfie at 4lbs 1oz, and both spent four days in a neonatal intensive care unit. In spite of Alfie being born with holes in his heart and George suffering an enfeebled immune system due to his premature birth, but both toddlers are now healthy and thriving.
Hannah said that taking her twins home was just amazing and she is glad that she took the right decision and followed her instinct rather doctor’s advice.
Hannah is now speaking out to call for superior education for doctors and wakefulness for the public on the pregnancy complication.
Hannah said that she was not given any proper advice or counselling and had to sort out help on her own.
She said that we trust the medical professionals and our doctor and what they say to us, we think is going to be the right option. But there just needs to be more awareness. Hannah further said that if a parent does find themselves in a situation like her then they know where to turn.
The founder of Little Heartbeats said that Hannah and her little surviving PPROM babies are living proof that these babies can survive with little to zero fluids. The founder said that these babies clearly demonstrate why we need to raise awareness of PPROM and that terminating the pregnancy is not the only option as these are just a few of the many babies who have survived.
A spokesperson for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust said that they are really sorry to hear about this but refused to comment on individual cases.
