Warm Welcome

Paige Worthington-Mort, 22, from Cornwall, couldn’t hold her premature baby for one month…

- Harriet Rose-Gale And Nia Dalton

Waddling around the living room in giant slippers, I moaned tomy mum, Marie, 50.

‘My feet have swelled so big, I can’t even fit into shoes,’ I said.

I was 24 weeks pregnant and for the past five weeks, my body and feet had been swelling.

I was wearing a size 9 slipper, and I used to be a size 5.

‘I think you should go to the doctors,’ Mum said. ‘You’re getting humongous.’ Two months ago, my boyfriend Jason, 28, and I booked a private scan and discovered we were having a healthy little boy.

The scans and tests came back normal – we were over the moon!

But now, I felt anything but normal…

‘I’ll come to the doctors with you,’ Jason agreed.

Clutching Jason’s hand, I waited for the test results. ‘You have high blood pressure and you’re full of fluid,’ the GP told me.

‘What does that mean?’ I asked worried.

‘You’ve developed preeclampsia,’ the GP explained.

‘It’s a pregnancy condition that can prove fatal if not monitored and treated.’

‘We’re admitting you to hospital,’ the GP said. What about the baby? ‘The doctors will take care of you,’ Jason reassured me.

‘I’ll be fine,’ I promised him, driving myself to Royal Cornwall Hospital.

I didn’t realise quite how serious my condition was.

‘I’m sure this won’t take long,’ I said to Jason. ‘I’ll be home tonight.’ But I couldn’t have prepared myself for what was to come…

‘We can’t let you leave until your blood pressure is under control,’ the midwife explained to me.

Days passed by and doctors worried.

‘I’ve had such a textbook pregnancy,’ I told the midwife.

‘Nothing has gone wrong up until now.’