Shortened Cervix

[Teeks]

Hi all,

I went for my 24th weeks scan on Thursday. The babies (Twins) are growing and doing fine with a normal heart-beats & growth.

But when my specialist did my cervical scan, he found that the cervix is shortened. He has suggested me to do an operation for suture of the tunnel on the cervix in Queen Mary Hospital.

Has anyone done that? I am worried sick and the doctor also mentioned that there is a high risk of premature labour.

Any suggestions? I was happy so far that the twins are allright, but I fear for my own health now.

 

[beckveldman]

Hi Teeks,

I notice it's been a few weeks since this post and no-one replied to you, so thought I'd have a go...

I've not had a twin pregnancy, but I did deliver a 32 wk boy last year, so coming at this more from the premature angle....

From what I understand (and lots of us swap detailed stories in NICU/special care) the shortened cervix isn't a health risk to you. Nor is it a direct risk to your babies. But when the cervix shortens, it starts to lessen the probability that you will carry close to full term.

That's why it's common in such cases for a suture to be inserted, to try to "keep them in" so to speak.

It does increase the chances that you're looking at an earlier delivery than you might previously have thought. Twin pregnancies are so often shorter than singletons, for lots of reasons. When we were in our last Sepcial Care Nursery before graduating to home, most of the bubs were twins who had just come a bit early - 35 or 36 weeks, so not so bad, and the bubs do very well from that gestation and usually were only in for about a week or so.

So I just wanted to mainly say that it probably increases the chances that you should look closely at Queen Mary. I was told that the Private Hospitals won't handle deliveries earlier than 36 weeks - they simply don't have the NICU facilities, which are generally found in large teaching hospitals like QMH.

I've heard some good things from QMH, but for many and varied reasons, when we found at 30wks that it was certain I'd need to deliver early (best horizon for us was 36weeks, and we were told it was unlikely we'd make it that far), we opted to "go home" to Australia, where we felt we would be more comfortable in that kind of situation. Just a personal thing.

I'm sure you and your bubs will do very well! I think you said the twins are correct size for their gestation, so that is excellent (Our son was born about 3 - 4 weeks small for his age). The suture should hopefully do it's job of keeping your little ones "resident" for a little longer to get nice and big and ready to come out.

Good luck, feel free to ask any questions.