A Pregnancy That Refused to Give Up

She came to me with a simple dream — to conceive and have a healthy baby.

She conceived in that very cycle.

But sometimes, pregnancy writes a story we never expect.

At 16 weeks, she developed leaking and sadly lost the pregnancy. What followed was not just a physical loss. It was an emotional one. The couple went through a period of profound grief and depression.

But slowly, they recovered.

And when they were ready, they decided to try again.

This time, we knew we had to be cautious.

Because of her previous second-trimester loss, cervical encirclage was advised. But she was not keen on undergoing the procedure. Her cervical length, however, remained reassuring and normal on serial scans.

So we continued the pregnancy with close surveillance and vaginal progesterone 400 mg, watching her cervix carefully.

For weeks, everything looked reassuring.

Until 27 weeks.

She had no symptoms. No pain. No bleeding. No obvious warning.

But the scan revealed cervical incompetence.

On examination, the cervix was already dilated, with the membranes bulging through the cervix.

This was a critical moment.

We had very little room for error.

A rescue cervical cerclage was performed. She was subsequently managed with bed rest, antibiotics and close monitoring, with treatment for suspected/associated chorioamnionitis.

Every additional day mattered.

Every additional week meant a better chance for the baby.

And against the odds, we managed to continue the pregnancy until 31 weeks + 4 days.

Then came the next challenge — leaking of liquor.

At this stage, continuing the pregnancy was no longer the safest option.

She underwent a lower-segment caesarean section.

A baby weighing 1.68 kg was delivered and admitted to the NICU.

And today, the little one is doing well in the NICU.

This case reminded us of something very important:

Sometimes pregnancy does not give you a warning. Sometimes the mother feels perfectly fine while the cervix is silently changing.

It also reminded us that a difficult obstetric history does not always mean a poor outcome.

Close surveillance, timely intervention, multidisciplinary care and, sometimes, simply buying precious weeks for a premature baby can make an enormous difference.

From a devastating loss at 16 weeks…

to a baby fighting strong at 31+4 weeks and 1.68 kg.

This was not an easy pregnancy.

But it was a pregnancy worth fighting for.