Arabin pessary

Firstly, so sorry about your previous loss. I had an Arabin pessary fitted at 18 weeks and I got to 34+4 weeks when my waters went with PPROM, before my girl was born via emergency C-Section at 34+6 weeks. I had been in the preterm clinic since 16 weeks following LLETZ treatment two years prior. I measured 20mm at 16 weeks, and went onto progesterone, I wasn’t deemed a good candidate for the stitch because of scar tissue. I went down to 17mm at 18 weeks which is when they fitted the pessary, and upped progesterone. Measurements crept up 23mm at 20 weeks and 27mm at 23 weeks when they stopped measurements. I was also on modified bed rest from 16 weeks, I felt heaviness and discomfort for most of my pregnancy. I honestly think the pessary helped, but also the bed rest. It was really inconvenient but I have to say when I got past 32 weeks I relaxed a bit and started moving about way more and then my waters went 😬 impossible to know, though, but definitely try and take it easy!

@Daisy thank you so much for sharing! It’s good to hear a positive story and that you got your little girl at the end of it through all the stress and worry! My consultant said I don’t need to be on full or modified bed rest ( personally I think he didn’t believe in it ) but I have taken it upon myself to sign myself off work until I hit the 28 week milestone. The drastic shortening has frightened me … plus I work 12 hour shifts in the nhs so it’s not the easiest job and on my feet a lot. The fact they are not checking my cervix now too I have no idea what’s going on down there, we are just trying to put our trust into the pessary getting us further and biding us more time. I’ve also been much the same , some days worse than others. Constant heavy feeling and I feel baby boy is really low. Some days I’m getting the urge to wee sometimes 2/3 times an hour from the pressure. Some people say it’s normal pregnancy related but I believe it’s my shortened cervix. Xx

@Daisy may I ask did you experience lots of discharge with the pessary? I was admitted the start of this week as I felt a trickle, they did a speculum and suspect it was a small amount of amniotic fluid, the trust I’m under don’t do the test so there was no way of saying for sure. Since then I havnt had any more leaks and seem to be clear of infection thank god. Xx

At 27 weeks I was admitted new car I went in with cramps and pink tinged discharge, speculum exam and lots of fluid which they felt was waters leaking. Though they didn’t do a fibronectin test. My consultant had warned me that midwives often mistake increased discharge for waters and that nobody has heard of the Arabin pessary so had to do lots of advocating for it! I was kept in for 3 or 4 days and released after a few scans showed plenty of fluid around baby. Scary though. Like you, I felt constant heaviness and pressure, and a lot of the time low discomfort when waking or lifting, all was aggravated the more I did, and in my gut I felt that being ‘active’ in anyway, even walking to the car or lifting shopping felt not safe for me. Friends said the feeling I described was like they felt just before labour, but I had it from 15 weeks! I think it was my cervix. That’s really tough with your job! Well done for signing yourself off, sounds like you’re listening to your instincts

Feel free to DM, too, it’s such a weird scary journey and I swear nobody had heard of the Arabin pessary! There’s also a Facebook group for IC, proceed with caution as it can be a bit of an anxiety-inducing place because of course mostly people use it with challenges, but lots of support and info, though I think I’m the only person on there recently who had a pessary, everyone else has the stitch https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AcknBKTH9/?mibextid=K35XfP