Positive fFN

Unfortunately, on Thursday I found out that my fetal Fibronectin test came back positive. The following is from the March of Dimes website:

"Fetal fibronectin

The fetal fibronectin (fFN) test measures the levels of fFN in secretions from a pregnant woman's vagina and cervix. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the fFN test may be useful for some pregnant women with symptoms of preterm labor (labor before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy) to help predict their risk of premature delivery (1).

What is fetal fibronectin?
fFN is a protein produced during pregnancy. It acts as a biological glue, attaching the fetal sac to the uterine lining. fFN normally is present in cervico-vaginal secretions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy and again at the end of the last trimester (1 to 3 weeks before labor). fFN usually cannot be detected between 24 and 34 weeks of pregnancy (5½ to 8½ months).

What is the fFN test?
Health care providers give the fFN test to women between 24 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. The presence of fFN during these weeks, along with symptoms of labor, suggests that the "glue" may be disintegrating ahead of schedule and alerts health care providers to a possibility of premature labor and delivery.

Providers use a cotton swab to collect samples of cervico-vaginal secretions during a speculum examination (similar to a Pap smear). Results usually are available within 24 hours. The result is either positive (fFN is present) or negative (fFN is not present).

What do fFN test results mean?
Most women with symptoms of preterm labor go on to deliver at term, even without treatment (2). The fFN test can help predict which symptomatic women have a reduced risk of premature labor and delivery. Fewer than 5 percent of women with symptoms of preterm labor who have a negative fFN test result deliver within the next 2 weeks (1). Identifying symptomatic women who have a reduced risk of premature delivery is the most valuable use of this test because these women often can avoid unnecessary medical interventions, such as bedrest, prenatal corticosteroids,hospitalization and labor-suppressing (tocolytic) medications (1,3).

Positive fFN test results in women with symptoms of preterm labor are less reliable. However, positive results allow health care providers and pregnant women to take preventive measures to delay labor as long as possible and to consider labor-suppressing medications."

In order to prepare for the possibility of preterm delivery, I was given steroid shots to mature the baby's lungs. This would give her a leg-up in the breathing department if she's born before 37 weeks, since the lungs are some of the last organs to fully develop.

I am also taking magnesium gluconate, which is helping to cut down on the contractions I've been having for several weeks now. My cervix has been dynamic this week, and has been anywhere from 2.5cm on Tuesday to 3.3cm Thursday. The great news is that it remains closed. The bed rest I am on will hopefully help to keep it long and closed.

Obviously I'm scared and worried about the health and safely of my baby girl. I'm 30 weeks tomorrow so if she were to be born at this point, she'd be ok, but she'd have a long NICU stay. I don't want that for her. I can't bear that thought of her struggling or being in pain.