Has anyone ever had a preventative cerclage before? Any positive/negative experiences? Did you need to stay in hospital/on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy? Any tips or thoughts on dealing with the procedure and a post cerclage pregnancy.....or dealing with a potentially difficult pregnancy after losing a child late in a previous pregnancy? Many thanks in advance

Any thoughts on this? Would be grateful for any input

It could be that no-one has been in your situation hence no replies until now. I never lost a child but did have two very difficult pregnancies, I came close to losing both of them but thanks to great medical care we all pulled through. I think having been in that situation, which does not really equate to yours, is to make sure you have a fantastic doctor whom you trust and feel comfortable with and who will answer all your questions. Also if you can try to stay calm throughout the pregnancy even if things aren't going well, easier said than done but it does help.

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My wife experienced it during her pregnancy. She was advised to be on bed rest due to an incompetent cervix detected on the 24th week of gestation. She was hospitalized and put on bed rest for approximately 2 months. On the 34th week, her membrane ruptured and labor was induced, followed by a vaginal delivery. i was with her all the way ...

Our daughter weighed approximately 5 lbs. She was deemed healthy and not placed in an incubator but was exposed to bilirubin lights for jaundice. She stayed on in the nursery for about 2 weeks before she was released. The rest of the neonatal course was uneventful. Our daughter is now 11 years old.

Your doctor will advice you to be on bed rest, if you want to move around the house be sure to use a rolling chair while sitting down.

Be positive Lisa, read books, eat healthy food (not raw), and most of all, take a lot of rest.

My prayers to you and the baby !!!

My mum had bed-rest for pregnancies, circlage and then c-section deliveries x 3. She also had 6 miscarriages...before deciding on permanent contraception....and she always wanted (and still does) more children...

Her advice is that she would not wish bed-rest on anyone...it's not fun at all!

She also had a stroke in between my brother and sister's births, which she blamed on having one of the very earliest c-sections by spinal block. She chose for a general anaesthetic for the third birth...she still has a small limp and dropped foot from the stroke...30 years later....

I don't think that I can give any advice except that the circlage did seem to work (the doctor obviously thinks it does if they are recommending it to you)...

On the 'advice' side of things, I can only speak as the daughter of someone who was deeply traumatised by repeated pregnancy loss, and the close friend of someone who lost her baby in a motor vehicle accident at 32 weeks, and the main thing is to keep talking about it...

Death of a baby, born or unborn, is still a very taboo topic. Yet, what I found is that when you do talk about it you find that a lot of people have experienced it in some way or another. I have gotten very mixed reactions about viewing, holding, undressing, and burying my friend's baby who died. Yet I consider it very deep and moving privilege to have experienced with her, and something that my husband and I will never forget.

I think that first time parents often have this 'naive' "oh, everything will be OK" sort of experience, whereas second time around we are much more pragmatic, and now you understand why people say "as long as it's healthy", and why we always report "mother and baby healthy and well" after birth...

I don't know if that helps, but you are definitely not alone in your loss, and in wondering what your options are for next time. A colleague of mine had a stillbirth at full term with absolutely no sign except the baby had died at 38 weeks. She gave birth vaginally, but it was so traumatic for her than she opted for having a c-section two weeks early, with her future pregnancies, as she was terribly afraid it would happen again...

Thanks to all for sharing. Sad but also somewhat comforting to know I’m not alone. I guess people don’t really talk about these things because it is so unspeakably painful. I’ve read a lot about cerclage and the fact that although there are certainly risks involved; it is often the only way a woman can bring a pregnancy to term. Good to hear some actually stories though. Many thanks again for the support.

My sister had this complication. She lost one the first time and then they the next one she had the 'Shirodhkar Stitch' and was under severe bed rest for over 6 months. She had no problem during her delivery my niece was born in less than 2 hours in a normal delivery and she's a naughty 2 year old now. I can understand it will be a very tough period to go through but am sure the minute your new born is out it will be a thing of past

Our prayers are with you and am sure you're gonna be victorious.

AS

Exactly the same as what happened to a friend of mine, except for the fact that her little boy will be a naughty 5 soon and his sister will be 2

That is SO good to hear. I guess it's not easy for other people in different ways. Guess that will just need to be my journey to having a family

I spoke to my sister about your concern and she suggested this site where people with incompetent cervix medical history discuss their cases http://ic.hobh.org/forums/ (incase you havent heard of it before). She warned there will be mixed discussions success stories and other ones as well.

Thanks very much! Good source of information!