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Friday, 29 September 2006

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Lea Walker: My unborn baby nearly drowned

Her beloved son Henry had a traumatic birth

Lea Walker, 37, admits she had the time of her life in the BB house and that the only downside was being away from her beloved son, 11-year-old Henry. ‘I was missing Henry so much that I was going to walk anyway,’ she says.

The boisterous blonde says she and Henry – who she calls H – have an extra special bond, due to the horrific circumstances surrounding his birth. ‘It was the most unbelievable horror story and I’m very lucky that we both survived. I thought I’d lost him, I really did,’ Lea recalls.

He was dying inside me

She weighed 22st when she gave birth to Henry. ‘Coming up to my time, the midwife said to me: “When your waters break, you only need to worry if the water’s brown because that means the baby’s purged his meconium too soon.”

'Meconium is the baby’s first stool and is normally stored in the intestines until after birth, but H was two weeks late. When my waters broke, you guessed it, it was as brown as you like.’

Meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), in which the baby inhales a mixture of meconium and amniotic fluid, can affect up to 25 per cent of babies. Although it can be serious, in most cases it isn’t. MAS is typically related to foetal stress, which can be caused by problems in the womb or, in Lea’s case, difficulties during the labour process.

‘As soon as I saw the colour of my waters, I rushed into hospital,’ says Lea. ‘During labour, he became lodged. I couldn’t have a Caesarean and they couldn’t get the forceps on him. He then got the umbilical cord wrapped round his neck as well, so he was being strangled and drowning from swallowing his meconium. He was dying inside of me.’

I was tearing badly

Any meconium present in the baby’s airways needs to be suctioned out before the lungs expand or it’ll be inhaled into the respiratory system. A DeLee catheter device is used in meconium cases before the baby takes the first breath after birth.

‘By this time, I was in absolute agony and my stretchmarks had started to bleed,’ says Lea. ‘I had little energy to push him out. I kept saying to the midwife that the epidural had run out and that I was tearing. She kept saying: “No, you’re not, you’ll be fine.” Of course I was tearing very badly, but the most important thing was H. Finally, he came out and they rushed him to an incubator. I didn’t even get to see him.

It was a nightmare

‘But it wasn’t over yet. The nurse who stitched me up was a trainee. She stitched me up externally before doing the internal stitching, so every time she did an inside stitch, the outside ones would rip. Honestly, it was a nightmare.

‘I didn’t get to see H for 10 hours after he was born because we were both so ill. I didn’t know if I’d lost him and no one bothered to tell me. The worst thing was being on a ward with all these other mums who were snuggling up to their new babies while I didn’t even know if mine was still alive.’

Thankfully, both mother and son survived the ordeal and now share an intensely close bond. ‘He’s just amazing,’ smiles Lea. ‘He’s always been such a good kid. I only had one sleepless week with him and that was it – he’s just wicked.’

Meconium fast facts

• Meconium, the baby’s first stool, is greenish-black with a sticky, tar-like texture. The baby usually passes it after birth and it poses no danger.
It leaves the body naturally in the first few days after birth.
• There’s no way to prevent meconium from being passed before birth, but in most cases this isn’t serious and expectant mums shouldn’t worry. If it does happen, having a competent practitioner who can handle the situation is the best prevention to avoid further difficulties. For more information, ask your doctor or visit www.patient.co.uk

Justine Harkness