‘I didn't love my baby after my horrific birth injuries'

Superfit Natalie Scott, 40, imagined she would take childbirth in her stride – but it almost ruined her life

- PUNTEHA VAN TERHEYDEN

If somebody had told me six years ago that I’d spend most of my waking hours thinking about my vagina, I’d have laughed them out of the room.

But the constant, biting pain I feel down there not only rules my life, but my family’s too. It’s only with the support of my husband David, 43, that I’m still alive today.

In March 2019, after spending almost three years in agonising pain following my daughter Selina’s birth, I decided to take an overdose.

When I was saved, I was furious. I had been so set on dying and ending the torture I had been living with.

Selina’s birth in January 2016 had been difficult induced labour that ended with a vacuum delivery. A cup with a handle was attached to Selina’s head to help guide her out of the birth canal.

In a rare complication, I suffered damage to my pudendal nerve – the main nerve running through the pelvis. Mine had become trapped, causing a compression injury and I was left with horrific pain that felt like someone was squeezing clothes pegs on my vulva.

Despite multiple trips to the doctors, GPs and specialists dismissed me, saying normal women coped with postnatal discomfort.

“Not being able to wear underwear or trousers isn’t normal,” I told them. But my pleas for help fell on deaf ears.

I began researching online and eventually found a Facebook group for women with pudendal neuralgia. My symptoms checked every box. I couldn’t even sit down and was only able to wear linen trousers.

But when I asked a gynaecologist if my symptoms could be caused by that condition, he laughed at me. I walked out of that hospital and sobbed my eyes out. “Will I ever get better?” I asked David, a former marine.