Hayley Day

n the 13th of December I gave birth to my beautiful little boy. The next day I was still at the hospital and the midwife checked my temperature and it was 37.9! (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth) I was given paracetemol and got told..”sit by the window,” or “have a cold shower,” so I sat by the window and felt absolutely freezing. She rechecked my temperature it was still high. She tested the thermometer on herself her temperature came up normal. So she went to get a different thermometer and she said it had come down and I was sent home.

On the 15th of Dec I had severe diarrhea. I was boiling hot and shivering. I had this for a week and saw 3 different midwives who all told me, “it’s a bug, drink plenty”.  I phoned the doctor who also told me it’s a bug but they offered blood tests…in 2 days time! By this point I had severe pains in my stomach (which I thought were from after having a baby).

I went for the blood tests at 10am and I had a phone call at 3:30 to say go to the doctor’s by 4:30. I was put on an IV drip, given oxygen and an ambulance was called. I overheard the nurse say to the doctor “severe sepsis.” I’ll never forget that moment! I thought I was going to die. I went to the hospital got given IV antibiotics put on oxygen and had a CT scan. The scan showed that my uterus was enlarged. I had retained placenta! I was at stage 2 and if I hadn’t had the blood test that day I wouldn’t be here today.

I was hospitalised for 5 days and missed out on my baby’s first Christmas as I was still in hospital on Christmas day. I just want people to be aware that it can happen through retained placenta. I didn’t even know that could happen as midwives don’t discuss it with you! So please look out for symptoms.