It was a mixture of emotions for 40-year-old Maria Carbonell the night before she was induced for labor.
"We were so excited and trying not to be fearful," said Maria from her bed in the maternity suite at Broward Health Medical Center."
Maria's first pregnancy was not easy. She was been on bed rest at the hospital for five weeks after her water broke at 28 weeks in February 2019.
A dental hygienist, Maria's water ruptured while she was at work. She bent down to retrieve something and began to feel a trickle down her leg. She would experience another trickle that night, and the next day she woke up in a puddle on her bed.
Maria knew something was wrong and went to a local hospital, and was immediately transferred to Broward Health Medical Center.
“Maria was diagnosed with a ruptured membrane and decreased amniotic fluid around the baby,” said Adolfo Gonzalez-Garcia, M.D., medical director of maternal fetal medicine at Broward Health Medical Center. “She was transferred to our hospital because the baby was only at 28 weeks and we have a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).”
“I remember following behind the ambulance carrying Maria to the hospital,” said her husband, Eric Carbonell. “I was freaking out, but trying to stay calm and figure out what do we do.
“We thought we weren’t going to bring our baby home,” Maria tearfully said. “We got here and everybody was like ’don’t worry. You are going to go home with this baby.’”
Carbonell was admitted and treated with antenatal corticosteroids, magnesium sulfate, and antibiotics, which studies have shown can extend the time of rupture to the time of delivery. One week in the hospital turned into two weeks and continued for five weeks until life in the maternity suite became like a vacation, said Maria, with Eric sleeping beside her in the maternity suite almost every night.
“Never once did anyone in the hospital say, ‘I don’t know, Maria, this does not look good,” she said. “They were so positive the whole time.”
At 34 weeks Maria delivered a baby girl on April 4 at 10:34 a.m. Savannah Elisabetta weighed 4 pounds and 1 ounce.
“We did it!” Maria joyful recalled cheering in the delivery room with Eric.
Savannah spent two weeks in the Level III NICU at Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital and on Saturday, April 20, was released from the hospital.