Conditions that threaten women’s lives in childbirth & pregnancy

Every year 800,000 women give birth in the United Kingdom. 8000 women will develop a life threatening complication during their pregnancy or birth. What’s it like for a mother to be critically ill as she brings new life into the world?

Jo, had a placental abruption: Anyway, as we pulled into the, the entrance of the hospital, I obviously I passed a massive blood clot at that stage.  And then the ramp got stuck on the back of the ambulance, they couldn't get me out very quickly, but even so I was sort of just lying there thinking, okay, something, something is happening here and as soon as, the minute they got the ambulance door to work, that as soon as the wheels on the trolley hit the ground then there was, sirens and an awful lot of people and running down the corridor like, well it was like something off casualty really. And I heard someone shout, “crash team” which sounds quite dramatic but at the time I was thinking crikey, crash team who's dying? Is it? Is it me? Am I dying? I don't feel that bad. I mean, I'm in quite a lot of pain, but I don't think I'm about to die.

Karen, had a post partum haemorrhage and hysterectomy: And so we went into theatre, everything was fine, baby was born healthy, nine and a half pounds, and, and then, and then that's when really it's kind of started to go wrong. And I remember a lot of activity, a lot of people in the room. I remember a sense of urgency, a lot of very serious faces and I don't know whether it was the drugs or whether it was because I'd lost a lot of blood, I think within the first four hours, I'd lost something like five litres of blood, and so whether or not that was making me drift in and out of consciousness as well, but basically from when I went in to have the C-section to the moment they decided to do the hysterectomy was four hours, but it seemed like half an hour.

Alison, had a post partum haemorrhage and hysterectomy: When, the first thing I said to him when he ran in across the intensive care, I didn't know it was intensive care at the time, but he ran in across the room to me and I.., even before that, I'd kind of known something was really wrong. My first words to him was “I'm not doing that again”. And he said, “you can't” or something along those lines. And as much as that, hearing him say that was just a complete…, you know, it was just devastating to hear that. I kind of knew that that's had happened.

Rebecca, had a placenta percreta and a blood clot: It was an awful experience to wake up and you know you've had a baby, you can't see the baby. She was in, in the neonatal unit. I couldn't see her because it wasn't even on side, the same side of the hospital. I woke up, my husband wasn't there because it wasn't visiting times, and they weren't flexible.

Kate, had HELLP syndrome: But they kept saying, you know, we, you know you'll look forward to seeing your son and I thought what son, what do you mean? Didn't really mean a lot to me.

Where was he?

He was in neonatal.

In the same hospital?

No different hospital a few miles away. But the nurses there were ever so good. They wrote a little diary from my son to me, and, of course, that that got me [becomes emotional] that got me [laughs]. So he wrote about what he’d been doing that day, and, but it was not real to me. And my partner showed me photographs, and I actually said, “have you got the right baby” I didn't recognize him.

Anna, developed septicaemia after birth: I didn't have a choice, and I think that’s -, that was hard the helplessness, thinking about the pain. Because I can still remember the pain now, and like remembering,  and I got told as well that if I'd have been left an hour, an hour more upstairs, I'd be dead now.  So I don't know how they -, I think it was because the septicaemia had kicked in already. Yeah so that's hard because obviously then I start to think what if I hadn’t have woken up? How would they know I was dead? How would they know tell me. The fact is, I just would have died. Nobody would have known because you know, my partner would have come and just been like ‘oh she’s sleeping bless her’. Do you know that’s scary.

Alex, had placenta praevia:

Was it quite a shock having been in hospital for such a long time?

Yeah, it was hugely emotional coming-, leaving. I can remember just getting to the waiting room and just bursting into tears. And then getting to the car and sort of having to [makes breathing noise] ‘we've made it, we made it, I can't believe we’ve done it’ , but it was lovely, you know, being in and it was a really special Christmas. It was very intimate Christmas, but it was, you know, you’re a lot more grateful for what you've got [laughs].