Oti: My baby was critical

Dancing on Ice star reveals ordeal after premature birth

- ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD

DANCING on Ice judge Oti Mabuse’s newborn daughter spent six weeks in a critical condition after being born extremely prematurely. 

Oti, who contracted sepsis while giving birth, said not being able to hold her baby was “traumatising”.

The former dancer, 33, revealed: “She came really, really early, unexpectedly premature, which was a big, big, big shock.

“We didn’t hold her for about a week because she was still in an incubator with wires, with jaundice, so she was under blue light.

“And she had infections because it turned out that I had sepsis.”

Oti and husband Marius Iepure, a 41-year-old fellow dancer, welcomed their first child in October.

They waited for nine weeks until Christmas Day to announce the birth online.

The baby girl’s name has not yet been revealed.

Ex-Strictly professional Oti said the life-threatening infection was “missed or not tested for”.

She said: “What happened was the bacteria which protects the baby when it is still in the womb, when your water breaks, it then attacks the baby.