I am not currently pregnant, but I am in the preconception phase.  Last time, I was planning a home birth and ended up in the hopsital due to PPROM at 35,5.  I am obese, I do not smoke, was not sexually active with a partner at the time, was a frequent bath taker, and was bad about checkinh my own cervix.  My early bloodwork showed that my neutrophils were elevevated, as they were on delivery.
 Ended up with pit as labor did not commence.  Ended up with epidural as pit hurt A LOT.

I would really like to try to prevent it for the next time.  I am working on losing weight, but would like some other ideas.  I would like to arm myself with knowlege in case it happens again.  Potentially going on antibiotics if there is a late rupture to get to term?

ideas?

Thanks Henci,

what a great for a site!

Good for you for working on losing weight before another pregnancy! That will reduce the chances of complications for you and your baby, not to mention the benefits for your own health down the road, although I don't know as it will affect the likelihood of preterm prelabor rupture of membranes.

One theory of a cause for PPROM is a silent vaginal infection. There is a systematic review (a study of studies on a particular topic) of the medical research on antibiotic treatment to prevent PPROM that reported that while the studies weren't high quality, when data from them were pooled and analyzed, results showed that antibiotic treatment cleared the infection, and women were 1/3 less likely to have a low-birth-weight baby, but preterm birth rates were not reduced.   If you want to try this, you may want to do something to rebuild normal harmless vaginal flora and fauna so you don't end up with a yeast or fungal infection. As for bathing, bath water does not enter the vagina during bathing. An elegant experiment decades ago proved that. Researchers impregnated tampons with starch and had pregnant women bathe in water that had iodine in it. If the water had entered the vagina, the tampons would have turned purple. None of them did. There is also a systematic review of antibiotic treatment with PPROM concluding that it reduced newborn infections, which is an important benefit whether it delayed labor or not. 

-- Henci