A mum has revealed the horror of giving birth 11 weeks before her due date – after terrifying symptoms put her life at risk.
Carla Mcclean was rushed for an emergency C-section after being diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.
The 34-year-old noticed that her body had “ballooned”, her vision was blurred, she was suffering with migraines and she had high blood pressure.
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She’d never heard of pre-eclampsia before and thought they were normal pregnancy symptoms.
“It had been a normal pregnancy and everything was fine but at 20 weeks, my body started swelling up,’ Carla, from Derry, Northern Ireland, told Need to Know.
“I just thought it was pregnancy.
“A few days later, I was so ill I couldn’t get off the sofa.
“I had a migraine and my body had ballooned up.
“I went from wearing a size small to a large.
“My vision was really blurry and my hands and feet were swollen.”
Carla didn’t want to leave her four children at home so was reluctant to go to the hospital, but her sister insisted she had a check up.
She said: “At the hospital, I started having fits and my whole body was shaking.
“I had really high blood pressure.
“They rushed me for an emergency C-section and said there was a chance that I wouldn’t make it through.
“It was petrifying.
“I had four kids at home I needed to get back for and I couldn’t stop thinking about them.
“I was scared I wouldn’t make it.
“I had never been so scared in my life.”
According to the NHS website, pre-eclampsia is a condition that affects some pregnant women, usually during the second half of pregnancy or soon after their baby is delivered.
Early signs of pre-eclampsia include having high blood pressure and protein in urine.
In some cases, further symptoms can develop, including a severe headache, vision problems, such as blurring or flashing, pain just below the ribs, vomiting and sudden swelling of the face, hands or feet.
Luckily, Nancy-Grace, now one, was born weighing 2lbs 9oz.
She had no long term health problems but had a turned in foot that was healed with physio and a bleed on the brain that corrected itself.
Nancy-Grace spent five weeks in intensive care and Carla discharged herself from hospital after 10 days.
She says the “petrifying” ordeal has left her with PTSD.
Carla said: “I’m only just sleeping a year later.
“I was scared to sleep in case she died in the night.
“We’re so attached to each other.
“I can’t leave her.
“You expect your baby to be put in your arms straight away but I don’t remember holding her for the first time because it was so traumatic.
“When she was born, she was taken to ICU, she was fighting for her life.
“They said I needed rest but you can’t rest when your baby is in ICU. It was so tough. “
Nancy-Grace is fit and healthy but Carla is speaking out to raise awareness of pre-eclampsia.
She says if she’d known about the symptoms of the condition, she would have gone to hospital sooner.
Carla said: “It’s unbelievable how far she’s come.
“She had physio for her legs because her feet were turned in and she had a bleed on the brain but it corrected itself.
“Now she runs around the garden and she’s really happy.
“It’s so important to raise awareness because if I’d known what the symptoms were, I would have gone to hospital earlier.
“I was going to be one of those parents who says ‘I’ve had four kids, I know what I’m doing’ but the doctor said I wouldn’t have survived to the end of the week if I didn’t go in.
“Hopefully I can save at least one family from the heartache.”
