Doctors moved me onto a trolley after giving birth, I thought I was dead & being put in a body bag, says Louise Thompson
THE former Made In Chelsea star has bravely revealed all about her traumatic childbirth in her new book.
Louise Thompson, 34, has opened up about her harrowing journey as she was operated on after birth, losing three-and-a-half litres of blood.
In the book, Lucky, she revealed she had an emergency C-section with her son Leo but suffered major complications that left her thinking she was dead.
After giving birth, Leo was taken away and Louise and her partner Ryan had no communication from medical professionals as to whether he was healthy – or even alive.
The bleeding had started during the C-section, and the haemorrhaging didn’t stop once the birth was over.
She was stuck on the operating table for more than three hours as doctors attempted to stop the bleeding.
To make matters even worse, she was left wide awake for the entire ordeal.
She candidly opened up about the horrid ordeal, saying: “For more than three harrowing hours, I am worked on in that operating theatre and I am awake throughout, aware of everything.
“In what other circumstances would a patient be conscious during major surgery over several hours, hearing the panicked voices, feeling every pummel, witnessing the loss of blood without a single word of comfort or explanation, for what is happening?
“Why haven’t they put me to sleep? To this day, that’s a question which has never been answered.”
Once the bleeding had finally stopped, nothing was said about what went wrong and Louise passed out from exhaustion.
When she woke up in a haze, Louise was convinced she was being taken to the morgue.
“The next thing I know I’m being moved on to a metal trolley,” she says.
“In my brain, I am one hundred per cent sure that I’m in heaven.
“I am dead. The surgery has failed. It’s my dead body on this trolley, waiting to be put in a bag.”
Doctors later told her that her womb had torn which caused the extensive haemorrhage.
The Birth Trauma Inquiry
Around one in four women experience mental health problems in pregnancy and during the 24 months after giving birth says the NHS.
An inquiry into birth trauma hopes to see a National Maternity Improvement Strategy led by a new Maternity Commissioner in government to outline improvements, these include;
- Recruit, train and retain more midwives, obstetricians and anaesthetists
- Provide universal access to specialist maternal mental health services across the UK
- Offer a separate 6-week check post-delivery with a GP for all mothers
- Roll out and implement OASI (obstetric and anal sphincter injury) care bundle to all hospital trusts to reduce risk of injuries in childbirth
- Oversee the national rollout of standardised post birth services, such as Birth Reflections, to give all mothers a safe space to speak about their experiences in childbirth
- Ensure better education for women on birth choices
- Respect mothers’ choices about giving birth and access to pain relief and keep mothers together with their baby as much as possible
- Provide support for fathers and ensure nominated birth partner is continuously informed and updated during labour and post-delivery
- Provide better continuity of care and digitise mother’s health records to improve communication between primary and secondary health care pathways
- Extend the time limit for medical negligence litigation relating to childbirth from three years to five years
- Commit to tackling inequalities in maternity care among ethnic minorities, particularly Black and Asian women
- NIHR to commission research on the economic impact of birth trauma and injuries, including factors such as women delaying returning to work
If you are struggling post-birth you can contact Association for Post Natal Illness (APNI) – helpline on 020 7386 0868
Appearing on Lorraine, Louise ruled out having another child. She said: “It’s still fairly inconclusive. I will never mentally be strong enough to carry a child and, physically, I have something called asherman syndrome where my uterus is glued together with scar tissue.
“I suppose in one sense, it’s a bit of a miracle that I didn’t have to have a hysterectomy, so I do still have a womb. I had a year with no periods, then I had a surgery to try and fix that and then that ended up in another haemorrhage so where I am left currently is that the hospital have sort of said ‘It would be too threatening.
“We wouldn’t want to do another surgery in that area. Let’s let you live’. Equally I am so grateful to have one beautiful, healthy child who has lots of friends and cousins. I do have ovaries and embryos so there is a chance I could freeze some eggs… when I am ready…”
Louise has written a book called ‘Lucky’ about her near-death experiences, laying bare all the shocking details.
It’s publication comes as Louise claims to be ’95 per cent’ recovered from her hellish three years.
She said: “I think I’ve reached a place now where I do genuinely feel lucky to have survived and come out the other side, and to be okay physically but mentally as well because there is a point in time where I never, ever, ever thought I would get back to this place. I was verging on… I wasn’t able to function following the childbirth…
“I’ve had several life-saving operations now and in total, I think I’ve lost twelve litres of blood over the course of just a couple of years. And prior to all of this, I had no experience of a hospital environment. I’d been really, really well, very healthy; like the poster girl of health. Nothing could have prepared me for it.”