Mariama
Mariama developed severe pre-eclampsia in her second pregnancy and had a caesarean section at 31 weeks. She became extremely unwell afterwards, and her son was cared for on the neonatal unit. Mariama is still taking medication for her blood pressure two years after giving birth. Clip read by an actor.
Mariama is a 44-year-old Black African woman seeking asylum in the UK. She is a single mother to a two-year-old son and also has a 26-year-old daughter who is still in Africa.
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Mariama was previously in an arranged marriage where she experienced severe abuse and forced labour. She eventually escaped the marriage, but had to give up her daughter in the process and hasn’t seen her since. Mariama went to work in another country, however after returning to her home country, her ex-husband found her and threatened to kill her, so she fled to the UK. Since then Mariama has been homeless at times and is now living in a safe house due to ongoing threats from her ex-husband. She is not allowed to work because of her immigration status but is currently studying health and social care.
Mariama was found to have raised blood pressure around 27 weeks into her second pregnancy. She didn't discover she was pregnant until quite late because she had fibroids which masked the symptoms and she had assumed that she was too old to get pregnant. At 31 weeks, she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and admitted to hospital with high blood pressure, severe swelling and shortness of breath. She had an emergency caesarean section soon after. Mariama regrets not being able to have a vaginal birth, which the doctors said wasn’t possible under the circumstances. Her baby was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Mariama was discharged from hospital four days later to a hotel, arranged by social services, while her baby remained on the neonatal unit. She had no one to support her and not long after, collapsed with an eclamptic seizure (a serious complication of pre-eclampsia). She was found by hotel staff who called an ambulance. She was admitted to intensive care and spent a further month in hospital before being discharged to temporary shared accommodation with her baby.
Because she was so unwell, Mariama couldn’t visit her baby in NICU at first, so staff brought him to her. Once she had regained enough strength, she was wheeled to NICU. She found being with her baby calmed her. At first, she expressed breastmilk which her baby was given through a tube that went from his nose to his stomach. Later, she breast and bottle-fed him. After Mariama and her baby were discharged from hospital, they were moved to accommodation where another woman living there sometimes helped with feeding and took the baby out for walks. Following her seizure, Mariama was left with weakness down one side of her body and needed physiotherapy to help her recover. It took around three months before she could move normally again, although she still struggles to lift anything heavy with that arm. Mariama was very grateful for the kindness shown by one doctor and nurse in particular, who brought her clothes and baby items because she had nothing at the time. Mariama later sent a thank you cards but isn’t sure if they received them, as she wasn’t certain she had the right names which still bothers her. In contrast, she felt overlooked by some of the other nursing staff, who didn’t always respond when she rang the call bell or help her to the toilet when she couldn’t walk on her own.
More than two years after giving birth, Mariama remains on blood pressure medication and still struggles with controlling it. At one point, she was asked to monitor her blood pressure at home for a week. She wrote down the results and showed them to her doctor, who adjusted her medication. However, no one explained what a normal reading should be or what to do if her blood pressure was too high and she was only allowed to keep the monitor temporarily. Now Mariama relies on physical symptoms like pain or pressure in her head to guess when her blood pressure is raised. She sometimes takes extra medication if she thinks her blood pressure is high but hasn’t told her doctor this. She would like to have her own blood pressure monitor and support with home monitoring to help manage her condition.
Before leaving hospital the second time, Mariama saw a dietician who gave her advice on foods to eat to help manage her blood pressure. However, she has found it hard to follow this advice because healthy food is more expensive, and she often has to rely on charities where there isn’t much choice. She would like to go to the gym to improve her health, but she can’t afford the cost and doesn't have anyone to look after her son.
Mariama’s mental health has been deeply affected by her experiences. She struggles with anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem and is often haunted by the thought of what might have happened if the cleaners hadn’t found her when she collapsed in the hotel. She worries about what would happen to her son if she were to die, as she has no family in the UK and little support. Mariama avoids contact with people from her home country because she’s afraid that her ex-husband (who has threatened to have her killed) might find out where she is. She has had some counselling, but had to stop because of funding issues related to her immigration status. Her mental health is a major concern for her. Mariama’s biggest source of strength and comfort is her son. She also finds a lot of purpose in the health and social care training she is doing. She would like to work in neonatal care one day so she can support other women who have been through similar experiences.
Mariama believes there should be more information and better care for women with high blood pressure during pregnancy. Looking back, she feels she should never have been discharged from hospital so soon and without proper support as she could have died. She doesn’t want any other woman to go through what she did, which is why she has shared her story.
Mariama described expressing milk for her baby after suffering an eclamptic fit four days after giving birth which left her critically ill (read by an actor).
Mariama described expressing milk for her baby after suffering an eclamptic fit four days after giving birth which left her critically ill (read by an actor).
So, what they did was, they were helping me, like, in pumping. So, yeah, I started by, like, pumping, and then they will take the milk for him, for where he was. And then it continue until when they... when I started, like, getting a bit better, and then when they... we... they will be... they will wheel me from where I was to where my son is and then I will... I will try to, like, giving him my breast. So that’s how I started bit by bit with the bottle feeding and then with the... Because before the bottle feeding, they were feeding him through the... how do you call this? This...?”
The tube?
Yeah, through the tube, yeah.