SMALL BUT MIGHTY

When one mum discovered she needed an emergency caesarean, the odds were against her - and her baby

- VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH, ELLIE FAWCETT

Sitting in my doctor’s office, I clutched my stomach. ‘I’m calling an ambulance,’ my GP announced, while I nodded, terrified. It was March 2019 and I’d been suffering from pneumonia for months. It wasn’t getting any better and now I’d started experiencing stomach pains and heavy bleeding.

Rushed to Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, I was kept in overnight. In the early hours of the morning, the doctor woke me with news. But it wasn’t anything I could have imagined. ‘You’re pregnant,’ he said. I was completely lost for words. Scans confirmed I was 16 weeks pregnant with a healthy baby boy.

I’d always pictured myself having children one day, and although finding out I was going to be an unplanned single mum at 37 was a shock, it felt like a chance to start fresh. The doctor explained that I had placenta praevia, a complication where the placenta implants at the bottom of the uterus, covering the cervix. It explained the bleeding and stomach pains. ‘You’ll need plenty of bed rest to minimise the bleeding,’ he advised.

Discharged after five days, pregnant life wasn’t what I’d imagined. Confined to my bed and only able to get around in a wheelchair, I felt bored and frustrated. Then, at 26 weeks, I started bleeding again. Back at the hospital doctors broke the news that I needed an emergency caesarean to give me and my baby any hope of surviving – but the chance my little boy would make it was only 50%. ‘Save him, not me,’ I cried, as I drifted in and out of consciousness.