One Mum's Story: Vicki-Lea, Tasharni & Ryan

Tasharni - one month old

Labour started and stopped until they induced me on the Wednesday (my due date). Thursday morning they applied the second lot of gel and let me go until 6pm that night when the I had only dilated 1.5cm. They broke the waters and inside a minute the baby's heartbeat went from normal to 200 beats per minute then dropped to 60 beats per minute - an indicator of distress - so they did a caesarean section.

After it was all over they told me that the placenta was black and they didn't know what bubby was surviving on. After she was born she had a weakened immune system so I just had to be careful what she was exposed to for a while.

Twelve months later a report came on "Today Tonight" about mercury poisoning and pregnancy and as I listened they might as well have been talking about me, as I craved flake throughout the pregnancy and was never told of the risks.

Anyway Tasharni Jayne is now a happy, healthy six year old and I have since had a little boy.

Ryan shortly after birth

Ryan Leigh's story starts with me finding out I was pregnant when I came home from holidays with family. All was well until the 30 week mark when I went to the doctor with a pain in my groin. I thought I had just hurt a muscle but I was told to go straight to hospital - don't pass go, don't collect your $200 - as the saying goes.

The next morning I was wheeled in to theatre with problems with my appendix. An hour or so later I woke up in ICU all confused, to be told that the appendix wasn't where it was meant to be and that I went into a state of AF (atrial fibrillation) on the operating table hence why I was in ICU.

While in ICU, because of the AF, I had a condition called renal tubular acidosis which is when the blood goes acidic, which was dangerous for both of us. They fixed that and I went home with a 9-10 inch cut down the centre of my stomach.

Two weeks later they discovered I had gestational diabetes which put me back in hospital to learn how to do injections as I needed four needles a day. But when this didn't stabilise the condition I was put back in hospital till the little guy was born.

He was born at 36 weeks by caesarean section. They had to do the c-section because I had three times the amount of fluid than I was meant to and this is dangerous for the baby in delivery. After he was born he went into a humidity crib as his sugar levels dropped which is normal for a diabetic baby, and he also had respiratory distress because he was born four weeks early.

Ryan was in the humidity crid for two days. I got him out for 7 hours then he had to go back in for 24 hours under the blue light because of jaundice and his liver was weak. There was an ongoing affect from this.

But now I have a healthy 22 month old little man.

I am telling my stories not to scare new mums but to warn them not to ignore even the little things. If it doesn't feel right don't wait get it checked. In my case it could have been much worse for me as so much can go wrong in a blink of a eye.

Anyway I hope by telling my story it helps other mums not to be scared and that they can take comfort knowing that the problems do heal and you do get the happy little baby you dreamed of.

God bless you all.

Vicki-lea Mclean

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