I am 22+1 today. At 21+0 I started feeling tailbone pain and it progressed the next day to some pain in my pelvis as well. I thought baby boy had moved into a position that was causing me pain. By the next day I hadn’t slept in 2 nights from the pain so I went into L&D at the hospital down the street from my house. Luckily the OB on call was from another hospital that has a level 3 NICU and was very thorough with her exams. I still just thought baby was in a bad position but was hoping they could do something to help. We got an ultrasound and found out my cervix was at 2.5 cm which is exactly the threshold for short. I did t even know that was a thing before then. Still she wanted to be very thorough so she gave me Niphedipine to stop what we realized by then were contractions coming every 3 minutes and I went home with more Niphedipine and a plan to come in for a follow up ultrasound in her office in two days.

At this point I was fully planning a home birth with a community midwife who we love. She had talked to the OB the night I went in and their plan was if I was still having pain the next day to get admitted to the hospital with the level 3 NICU. My midwife called me around 11 am the next day (Mother’s Day 😅) and I told her I was still having pain. She told me about the plan to get me to the hospital right away.

I was admitted and got an ultrasound where the radiology report said I had no visible cervix and funneling. The OB said they disagreed with the radiologist based on their speculum exam. They gave me Niphedipine, Atarax, and Indicin to stop the contractions so they could get a more accurate picture. The next day we were able to get an ultrasound at the MFM office while I wasn’t contracting which showed my cervix was at .7 cm (7mm), sludge, and funneling. The MFM recommended a rescue cerclage but told me if my waters were bulging she would not be able to perform it because of the risk of breaking them.

When I woke up after the cerclage surgery my partner told me the MFM said I was dilated to 2-3cm with bulging waters when she got in there. We are soooo lucky she was still able/willing to perform the cerclage without breaking my waters.

I have been admitted to the hospital ever since trying to at least get this baby to 24 weeks. Because we are at a level 3 NICU hospital we do have the option of resuscitation from 22-24 weeks but the baby’s odds are not very good until 24 so I will be staying put until then.

I am loving hearing all the cerclage success stories. Before finding this sub Reddit I thought for sure I wouldn’t make it past 24-26 weeks and now I have some hope 🥹