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What we discovered during the PPROM study, and how we will use the information to develop more effective treatment and guidance.

  • 2 in 3 women continued their pregnancy and 1 in 3 women had Termination For Medical Reasons (TFMR)
  • Amongst women who chose to continue their pregnancy, 39% gave birth in the week after PPROM
    • This means that a lot of babies were born too early to survive or very premature. 
  • Amongst women who chose to continue their pregnancy, 44% had a baby that was born alive
    • If we include the women who had TFMR within the results the worst-case scenario is that 30% of babies may be born alive, and the best-case scenario is 62%.
  • The chance of the baby being born alive was better when the waters broke slightly later in pregnancy
    • When the waters broke at 16-17 weeks of pregnancy 33% of women who chose to continue with pregnancy had a baby that was born alive.
      • The worst-case scenario for women whose waters broke at 16-17 weeks is 17% and the best-case is 65%. This range is so wide because 45% of women with PPROM at this stage of pregnancy had TFMR
    • When the waters broke in the 22nd week of pregnancy 67% of women had a baby born alive.
      • The worst-case scenario for all women with PPROM at 22 weeks was 54% and the best-case scenario was 73%.
  • The chance of the baby leaving the hospital alive was 26% amongst women who chose to continue with pregnancy
    • If we include the women who had TFMR; the worst-case scenario is 17% and the best case is 53% of babies leave the hospital alive
    • The chance of the baby leaving the hospital alive was better if the pregnancy was more advanced when the baby was born
  • The chance of the baby leaving hospital alive without severe illness was 18% amongst women who chose to continue with pregnancy
    • If we include the women who had TFMR; the worst-case scenario is 12% and the best-case scenario is 48% of women, who may have left the hospital with a surviving baby, without serious illness.
    • The chance of the baby leaving hospital alive without severe illness was better if the pregnancy was more advanced when the baby was born.
  • Of the babies born alive; 39% left hospital without severe illness,16% left hospital with severe illness, 29% died, and 16% did not have follow up data. 
  • There was a lot of variation in how long surviving babies stayed in hospital. The average length of hospital stay was 2 months, but 1 in 4 babies stayed in hospital less than 17 days and 1 in 4 babies stayed more than 3 months.
  • Twins had similar outcomes to the pregnancies with just one baby, especially if each twin had its own placenta and own sac (these are called dichorionic diamniotic pregnancies, DCDA).
  • Overall the change of a woman with PPROM developing sepsis was 14%
  • The chance of admission to the intensive care was 1.1% in mothers 
  • There were two women with early PPROM in this study who died, both due to sepsis. This gives a chance of maternal death of 0.5%.
  • We had fewer pregnancies reported per month during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • We did not find a significant difference in mother or baby outcomes according to whether the PPROM occurred before or during the pandemic.