Anyone who previously lost twins, now on P17 shots with a singleton?

philfemgal

This came up in my thread from yesterday about being scared to have sex.  I thought I'd start a new thread since the issue is buried in that thread under all the sex talk.

Anyone who has previously lost twins (or maybe multiples of any degree) due to pre-term labor and now pregnant with a singleton getting P17 shots?  This is the one intervention we are not planning to do this pregnant that I am of two minds about.  My OB and my previous MFM's office both are anti.  They stress that they really, really think my previous loss was all about it being twins (and one of the twins dying earlier in the 2nd trimester) and they stress that at 18.5 weeks it does not even technically count as pre-term labor.

I was hoping maybe someone else has had the same experience and can tell me what they are doing?

shanaynerz

Okay totally not sure if our situations are really similar, but I thought I'd share.

First off, I'm not sure what P17 shots are! I lost my twins at 22 w 3 d last year. Both were born alive and passed shortly after. I saw an MFM doctor at the beginning of this pregnancy to assess my loss. He actually did consider the loss PTL, but probably due to a placental abruption, due to it being twins.

This pregnancy has been harder surprisingly, symptoms-wise, but textbook in every other way. The MFM doctor told me that there was nothing to worry about this time around as I am having only one baby and nothing is inherently "wrong" with me. I had a few more U/S's is all, but otherwise I've been treated like any other patient by my OB.

Anyways, in regards to my situation, no intervention was ever even mentioned to me and things have been great! I believe if I was pregnant with twins again I probably would have been more closely monitored and possibly stayed with the MFM over just my OB. Twin pregnancies are just higher risk it seems, yet no one seems to ever talk about it!

How has this pregnancy been so far for you? And I hope my answer wasn't totally useless! Good luck! 

MeggM1

Hi - I'm a lurker and not in the exact same situation, but similar enough that I thought I'd share.

My PTL with my twins was completely out of the blue at 32 weeks.  No previous indication of pre term labor through the whole pregnancy, woke up in the middle of the night with contractions that couldn't be stopped, delivered several hours later.  Our daughter's (Twin A) loss wasn't due to the PTL but complications from the delivery.  I transferred my care to another OB, but my original OB never indicated anything for the PTL other than twins that were apparently ready to come out, and my current OB and MFM agree that there doesn't look like anything like IC that caused the PTL.

With that being said, I went into this pregnancy asking for more monitoring and open to any intervention they would offer, despite this being a singleton pregnancy.  My MFM has prescribed the P17 injections, and I've been on them since 16 weeks (I had my 9th one on Monday).  Our MFM was pretty thorough in going over that because the PTL was during a twin pregnancy, my odds of PTL with this pregnancy weren't near as high as someone who had PTL with a singleton.  But that he still recommended the P17, and after doing our own research on it, we agreed that that was something we wanted to move forward with.

It's definitely a personal choice, and I love seeing the PP a couple of days away from full term (congratulations!).  We have also had extra u/s and cervical checks starting at 21 weeks and everything looks as it should at this point.  I don't know how much the P17 shots are doing other than giving me some piece of mind and that I'm doing something, and they are a huge pain on the night that I take them, but I'm glad that we are doing it and it was at my doctor's recommendation.  I think of it less as a necessary intervention and more of a precaution, to be honest.

 I'm so sorry for the loss of your twins.  How has this pregnancy been so far?  

philfemgal

Thanks to both of you for your responses.  I'm sorry for both of your losses.  And shanaynerz congrats on being almost full-term--it's inspiring to see everything has gone well for you with this pregnancy after your loss of twins!

My pregnancy so far this time around has been fine (very anxiety provoking of course, but physically no problems).  Of course, last time around it also all seemed fine except for the first twin dying and then I did have a lot of pelvic pressure around weeks 16-18.  But other than that, no signs of anything going wrong.  My labor also started very suddenly--I had my a/s the day before I delivered my daughter and everything looked great including the length of my cervix.

I am doing vagina progesterone for the 2nd trimester which my OB was more supportive of, I think because it is less of a big deal, less expensive, etc.  I think of it also as a precaution, not really necessary.  I just sometimes go back and forth about the shots because I think, if something goes wrong won't I be mad at myself for not doing absolutely everything?  Yet objectively, I do understand that the shots are not indicated in my situation and very likely it really was the twin situation and particularly the death of the first twin that caused my labor.

In any case glad to see both of your pregnancies seem to be progressing well.  I wonder how many of us on this board are pregnant with a singleton after the loss of (one or more) twins.  We hoped so much that there would only be one baby this time so the pregnancy would not be so risky and are so happy that that is the case.  But at the same time, it's hard to think we will never raise twins.  We had started to think of ourselves as parents of multiples.

 

ehlersm

I wonder how many of us on this board are pregnant with a singleton after the loss of (one or more) twins.  We hoped so much that there would only be one baby this time so the pregnancy would not be so risky and are so happy that that is the case.  But at the same time, it's hard to think we will never raise twins.  We had started to think of ourselves as parents of multiples.

 

I am - I lost my boys in January due to PTL / possible IC. Only one this time and we feel everything you stated above. We really got used to the idea of having multiples, but are so grateful for another baby to come our way.

As far as P17 shots, I am too early to have made a decision, but my doctor sounded as if he was all for them starting around week 16/17. 

SockMonkeySam

I lost triplets in 2010, one at 12 weeks the other two stillborn at 23 weeks.

I carried my son in 2011 right to  his due date with no complications and no P17 shots were ever mentioned.

I am now pregnant with twins and it freaks me out again. Still have not been even spoken to about P17 shots. My OB does not consider me high Risk so he would probably turn me down even if I mentioned it.

niknak1128

My situation wasn't exactly the same but I've been on p17 shots since 17 weeks.  I lost our baby girl at 19wks in Septemeber of last year.  They suspect that my cervix changed and wasn't caught but we never actually diagnosed this.  My MFM decided to proceed with the injections because they aren't harmful and if I truly did have IC then they would have proceeded this way anyway.  I'm doing them for another couple of weeks.  There's really no down side (that I know of)  aside from the fact that my insurance only covers them if administered in clinic so I do have to go to the doctor weekly and they do hurt like hell most of the time.

I guess my point is that we really never found out why I lost the baby. All of my recurrent loss testing came back normal. All of the babies pathology came back normal. I had PPROM and placenta abruption at 19wks. We went ahead with the shots anyway.

GL to you!!