Another checkup - 4th June 2009

28 weeks and 5 days. Not much to report from today except that fluid had only increased to 26cm which is really good. However, I am still very anxious as my consultant does not seem too concerned and she is hoping to not drain the fluid until I return to London at 34 weeks!! This is worrying me as they thought it may need drained weekly and also that they do not only measure the fluid level, they look at it in relation to cerival length. When I got the balloon in my cervix was 33mm, this is very good. With so much fluid the weight on my cervix is greater than it should be for 28 weeks, this tricks the body into thinking that the baby is larger and that I am closer to term. If it is getting to the point that my body thinks I approaching 40 weeks the cervix will shorten. It is therefore very important that the length of cervix is taken along with fluid level to make the decision to drain. I am finding it very frustrating that my consultant does not appear to think this is necessary.

I am also starting to get frustrated that I do not know if the balloon is working. It is very hard as I feel like we have gone so far and now we are relying on being monitored by someone who has no experience of the balloon or what it is likely to do. Whilst she is an excellent consultant there are very clear differences between the follow up received at Kings College. This is simply because they are seeing cases like ours on a day to day basis and decisions to drain fluid or assessing LHRs come as second nature.

We are also discussing the option of delivering the baby in Kings College Hospital for similar reasons to noted above. They are delivering all the babies that have had the balloon and they have a much more positive attitude to CDH cases than the team here.