Health

Mum thought baby was on fire after bowel was removed during 56 hour labour


Spending the first night at home with her husband and newborn daughter should have been a ­precious moment for Sophie Thomas.

But it would be one of the most terrifying nights of her life.

“I was sleeping and could smell fire,” she says.

“I opened my eyes and the cot was alight. My baby was burning, there were flames. I was screaming.”

The flames weren’t real, but to Sophie, suffering hallucinations caused by PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), this was the start of what she believed was a battle to keep her daughter alive.

She never slept for more than an hour and developed obsessive rituals while maintaining the outward appearance of being a normal new mum.

Sophie had met her husband William at the school where they worked – she was the deputy head and he was the caretaker.

William already had a son, Pharaoh, now eight, and the couple were keen to have a baby together.

“I found out I was pregnant two days before our wedding,” says Sophie, 35.

But the pregnancy was blighted by hyperemesis gravidarum, excessive nausea and vomiting.

Symptoms began on their wedding night and Sophie was bedridden for four months.

“I had to be carried to the ­bathroom. I couldn’t be left alone.”

Cariad is delivered at last and introduced to her mum

 

When Sophie’s symptoms went at 32 weeks she was elated.

“Everyone said, ‘You’re owed a good birth after what you’ve been through!’ I believed it.

“I had no fear. When my waters broke in the hall of our flats, we were laughing.”

Sophie’s not sure why her birth went wrong. A midwife suspected the baby’s head was pointing towards her hip and referred her to a doctor – but he cleared her for a natural birth.

After her waters broke with no sign of ­contractions, Sophie tried “everything on Google – walking up hills, even visiting an aquarium, which is supposed to help”, but eventually she was induced.

The pain was so bad she asked for an epidural.

After 56 hours of labour, during which she’d experienced panic attacks, doctors said the baby was in distress and prepared her for an emergency caesarean.

But as Sophie awaited surgery, a more urgent case arrived.

She and William were left alone, with no ­monitors to show what was happening to their baby, for half an hour.

A midwife arrived, but it would be two hours before she was taken to theatre.

By now, the baby was stuck under Sophie’s ribcage, necessitating an extended caesarean.

The epidural wore off and Sophie vomited from “incredible pain”.

The surgeon, having taken out Sophie’s intestines and bowel to get the baby out, said she couldn’t get the bowel back in.

Sophie had her daughter – named Cariad – placed on her chest for a few seconds before blacking out.

Not long after coming around, Sophie haemorrhaged and needed an ­emergency procedure, without ­anaesthetic, to remove clots.

“I thought I was going to die,” says Sophie. “I looked at my husband holding my baby and thought, ‘I’m never going to see you again, I won’t see you grow up’.”

The procedure worked, but Sophie had a bowel blockage that would have to be corrected with major surgery – or a more minor procedure if she could stand up.

The surgeon was the same one who’d performed the caesarean.

Paranoia was taking hold.

“I thought she wanted to kill me; she’d messed up the caesarean and was trying to save her career.

“She told me I’d die if I didn’t have the operation and didn’t have time to deal with my nonsense. I said ‘fine, I’ll die’.”

Little Cariad is growing up fast and her mum is coping fine

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Incredibly, within 24 hours, Sophie walked down a hospital corridor and had the minor procedure.

Back on the ward and unable to sleep, she screamed at anyone who came near, convinced they would operate on her.

A midwife suggested she go home to sleep and a mental health nurse said Sophie was no risk to her baby and scheduled twice-daily visits.

But the first night at home brought hallucinations of the cot in flames.

To Sophie, now very unwell, there was an ­explanation – she’d cheated death and the universe would take her baby.

Terrified of sleeping and leaving Cariad unprotected, Sophie set alarms.

She lined up bottles and made sure dummies were the right way up in ­Cariad’s mouth to ensure her survival. She thought about suicide.

Sophie with husband William and little Cariad

Eventually she realised she needed help.

“I wanted a doctor to say, you have a psychological problem, we can fix it. After five months, I saw an amazing GP who referred me to a psychiatrist.”

Sophie was diagnosed with postnatal PTSD, which 30,000 British mums suffer a year, according to the Birth Trauma Association.

She was given EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), which requires the patient to recall ­traumatic events during rhythmical stimulation, such as moving their eyes back and forth, hand taps or sounds.

Most people require between eight and 12 sessions.

Results were swift.

“When treatment started, I honestly couldn’t believe I’d survived. Trauma fragments your thoughts and memories.

“With EMDR, they build a new picture, put it in a chronological narrative. In just 45 minutes, I was able to understand that I had made it through.

She also found comfort in the Birth Trauma Association’s Facebook page .

“Realising that there were so many other women like me made it less scary.”

Cariad is now one and Sophie enjoys life as a mum. But the couple have ruled out risking having another baby.

  • For to find out more information, visit birthtraumaassociation.org.uk





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