WEEK 28 : Week by Week Incompetent Cervix Pregnancy Guide - 3rd TRIMESTER!

NOTE : For the regular advice on Week 28, I suppose there are hundreds of other websites to tell you how it goes. This blog serves to supplement those sites, my personal favourites being What To Expect, Baby Centre UK and Parents. Do take note, however that I am not a professional physician, I practise law for a living and the only thing I know about incompetent cervix is through my own experience as a mother of 2 and a 23 week old baking in the oven! :)  The purpose of this blog then is just to simply share the joys and heartaches, the blessings and curses, the sadness and happiness and the disappointments and the pleasant surprises of our journey as a mom with an incompetent cervix.


Are we really in the 3rd trimester already? Yes, we are almost there! Can you believe that we have actually stayed in bed for the entire 14 weeks since our cerclage??? WOO HOO!!!! This calls for celebration! A glass of red wine, perhaps. I heard it's good to settle down contractions. :)

While other websites for normal pregnancies will tell you to look out for signs of diabetes, pre-eclampsia and all those 'normal risks', well, as IC mommies, what we should look out for is preterm labour (read all about it in Week 27).  You may ask, what is the difference between the 'normal' preterm labour and preterm labour as a result of the incompetent cervix?

Well, preterm labour can happen anytime after your 20th week of pregnancy (before the 20th week it is considered a miscarriage), and there are many causes, including an incompetent cervix.  The thing about an incompetent cervix is, there is usually nothing wrong with our babies, or uterus, or the placenta, or even our physical wellbeing.  We are healthy, there is truly nothing wrong with us or our babies, it's a MECHANICAL problem.  The cervix is supposed to do its job and keep the baby IN and other things (like infection) OUT (read Week 9) .  It is supposed to shorten, dilate and open only shortly before labour, not in our 2nd trimester! Unfortunately, this is what it is all about. It either shortens, or dilate, or funnel, way before it is supposed to.  Some of us are born with a short cervix anyway.  The cerclage (read Week 13 and Week 14) seems to be the popular option, believed to be 80 to 90% successful in keeping the babies in until fullterm.

Most doctors prescribe bedrest together with a preventive cerclage in a planned incompetent cervix pregnancy, and I remember I was up and about a month after my 2nd preventive transvaginal cerclage.  But each cerclage is as different as each pregnancy is different, as each woman is different. If you have come this far, you will be in a state where you know the chances of survival of your baby is high even if she/he is born prematurely now, but then again, we always want the best for our babies.  If we can carry till fullterm, why do we want to take any risk at all?

This is a week where you just sit back and reflect.  Your journey may have been different from mine. You may have lost your babies before, and Week 28 is the furthest you have ever been.  You may be pregnant for the 1st time and struggling to understand what is this incompetent cervix all about.  Or you may have been thoroughly prepared, mentally, physically and financially, for this pregnancy which you know is going to be a high risk one.  Or you have just been diagnosed and it is too late for a cerclage and you don't know if you can carry to fullterm.  Whatever your journey entails, stay strong and have faith.  I never knew I was going to have 2 beautiful boys, and pregnant with a 3rd one - a baby girl, what with PCOS and an incompetent cervix to top that.  Miracles do happen.

Remember to eat healthily, take the opportunity to rest and see this bedrest as a blessing to soul search.  To bond with your children at home.  And be thankful for all the support you have received through this all.