On Friday 16th October on my way home from work my waters broke at 18+1 weeks, me and my partner rushed straight to the hospital to be told the devastating news that my membranes had fully ruptured and there was nothing they could do for us. I was given the option to terminate the pregnancy there and then or to continue naturally. Noahs heartbeat was strong, so we didn't give up. I found a group of women called Little heartbeats and they gave me hope to push and carry on. My infection markers began to rise but we didn't give up even though the option of termination was given again but at 18+5 weeks on the 20th October 2020 our beautiful boy was born naturally. 

More research needs to be done to enable us to  prevent and repair ruptured membranes and to give other women and their babies a chance. 

SIX out of 100 babies in the UK are born prematurely, before the 37 week of pregnancy. Babies may be born early because a women goes into labour spontaneously. But sometimes babies need to be born early because they are having problems in the womb, such as poor growth for example. Improvements in the care of newborns mean that most premature babies survive and grow up normally despite being born so early. However some babies have long term health problems as a result of being born premature.

Our understanding of premature birth is limited and that is why more research is vital. We research why some women go into labour early by studying the role of infection, the response to infection and the natural antibiotics in the vagina. We are developing therapies that could reduce a woman’s risk of going into premature labour. We are testing out new treatments to help babies grow in the womb.

Our Research

Your donation will help to support our current research programme, which is:

- Developing tests to improve prediction of premature births (£50 per sample)

- Analysing the levels of bacteria in urine (£75 per sample)

- Examining immune blood cells in women who have their baby premature (£150 per sample)

- Developing new drug and stem cell treatments that could heal the amniotic membrane when it ruptures early (£200 per sample)

- Testing the response of the amniotic membrane to repetitive stretching to find out why they rupture early in some women (£500 per sample)

- Testing new drugs to help small babies grow better in the womb (£1000 per experiment)

Each of these studies involves carrying out tests on 50 to 100 women.

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Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.