Kathleen Hickey

16th February 2017, I was sent into hospital to be induced for my son as I was 13 days overdue. The pessarie didn’t work so the midwife tried to pop my waters…. this is where the nightmare starts! (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth) As soon as she popped my waters, my baby’s heart beat decreased suddenly and I had a lot of blood coming out. Then all the midwives were rushing me into another room, strapping me to all these monitors and I had to have a canula put in my hand and on a drip. When I got to 3cm I decided to have a epidural so a urinary catheter was fitted. The midwives did not keep emptying the bag of urine, which caused me a great deal of pain in my pelvic area and I had a lot of blood going into the tube.

Hours later I could feel myself getting very ill. I had more drips. It was only after I had my baby, I found out I had contracted an infection in labour and had maternal sepsis and so did my baby. We were both put on antibiotics and stayed in hospital for 5 days. It took me months to feel like myself again and even now every little pain I have, I am so scared that I will end up with sepsis again and not be so lucky this time.