My heart was racing and the silence was deafening throughout the 20 week scan, as the sonographer checked every detail of our little boy. Then she said, "Your little boy looks great and I have no reason to worry about his health." I felt like I had been holding my breath for the whole 30 minutes and I just remember taking in a big breath and feeling so relieved. "You do have something called placenta previa and your placenta is currently blocking your baby's exit. The placenta does often move but in very rare occasions when they don’t it would result in a c section at 39 weeks," she handed me a leaflet and continued, "you are booked in for another scan at 32 weeks and we will go from there." I wiped the jelly off my stomach, pulled my jumper down and headed back to work with my 20 week scan in my hand, passing it around the office like a proud mummy. I was so glad my little boy was healthy.
Later that evening I began looking into placenta previa. "In extremely rare occasions it can result in one big bleed, the mother can lose litres of blood in a matter of minutes, and it can result in death for the mother and the baby if not seen to in time," I read out to my partner. I was a little worried but I tried to remain as positive as possible. "She said both placentas move out the way anyway, so I am sure it will be fine," I reassured my partner. We were due to get married in March and the pregnancy news came as a huge shock, but we were very excited. We’d been looking at heading to Mexico for our honeymoon but we decided that it could be too risky if the placenta hadn’t moved and decided to stay in the UK instead.
At around 26 weeks (six weeks before our wedding day) I began experiencing bleeds. They were small bleeds but I was advised to head straight to the hospital as it could be a sign that a bigger bleed was on the way. I had to stay in hospital for around 48 hours and then I was sent home again. This continued at least once a week right up to the week before the wedding. The nurses told me that I needed to understand that I may not make it to my wedding day. A tear ran down my cheek.
The week before the wedding I rested a lot and luckily didn’t experience any bleeding which meant the wedding could go ahead. I got married to my soulmate on 26 March 2016.
After the wedding, I began having bleeds again and on the last occasion I was 33 weeks pregnant. I was in hospital overnight when I woke up at around 1:45am and turned the light on to find my bed covered in blood. I rang for the nurse and before I knew it I was being rushed to theatre and nurses were shouting, "She has lost too much blood and the baby needs to come out now."
George was born at 2:14am weighing a tiny 4lb 12oz. He wasn’t breathing initially and had to be resuscitated and we both had to have blood transfusions. The nurses said that if I was at home both George and I wouldn’t have made it. George was taken to intensive care in the neonatal unit in Blackpool. Initially he couldn’t breathe by himself, but after three very challenging and difficult weeks George finally came home.
After my experience, I decided that I wanted to help other parents in similar situations. I had written a lot of my thoughts and feelings down and it made me feel so much better. I decided that during my maternity leave I wanted to create a helpful website for parents. The website has articles on pre-conception, pregnancy and after birth, reviews on products, days out and services. I write humorous blogs on the truth about motherhood and my website also includes a baby, toddler and pre-school directory of classes/groups/businesses and events across the UK.
