On the 9th of January 2024, I delivered our beautiful healthy baby boy. Similarly to my previous births of my daughters 2 and 3 years prior it was a smooth one. Epidural, 6 hour labour and when it came to pushing he was out within two minutes. We were elated in our newborn bubble and were to stay in the hospital for the next four nights.
On the morning of the 13th of January, I had a shower and I was shivering and couldn’t get warm. I mentioned it to the nurses who said ‘it’ll most likely be your milk coming in’. I didn’t think too much about it and felt okay so didn’t worry. That afternoon my girls came to visit and we all gave their brother a bath together. Upon getting back to the room, the shivers started again. We called for a nurse who immediately was worried, checking my vitals and informing me that I most likely had an infection and I’d need antibiotics. An hour later I had a cannula in and was being administered with antibiotics. After that I felt well again, had some dinner and went to sleep. At 11pm I woke up again shaking, unable to control my breathing and had blood pressure that wasn’t right. It was then that I was told that I would be transferred to ICU and that I most likely had sepsis. My baby was taken to special care and I to ICU. My husband going backwards and forwards checking on us both.
In ICU I was put on antibiotics and unable to see my baby. I was too sick to breastfeed and didn’t really understand at the time how serious my condition really was. After lots of poking and prodding and testing, the following day I was informed that I had a strep A infection. I was isolated with nurses coming in, in blue plastic and my husband no longer able to visit. My only grace was they allowed me to keep my baby with me. Looking back now, it was hard to care for him as I was still recovering but I also did not want to be apart from my precious boy. I was so incredibly lucky that the ICU staff were so great. One nurse coming in for over an hour to give my baby cuddles when I couldn’t. Another midwife similarly coming down for a check in visit and helping me with the things I needed as a mum of a newborn.
Those nights were hard, me recovering, cannula’s in my way of breastfeeding and nappy changes and my milk not coming in as quickly as it should have. After 24 hours I was out of isolation but due to my temperature still spiking on and off I needed to stay in there another night. The next three days after that consisted of IV antibiotics in hospital and another week of oral antibiotics at home. My 4 day hospital stay turned into a week long one. My husband, 2 girls and newborn baby also had to have antibiotics as a preventative measure.
Prior to this I had never realised maternal sepsis was a thing to look out for. I had no idea I had Strep A nor where I contracted it from. The point of me sharing is awareness. If I had gone home the day after giving birth there is no way that I would have had as positive of an outcome. I would have brushed off the fever until it got worse and definitely wouldn’t have received the much needed medical attention that I did as quickly as I did. To this day, I consider myself so lucky that it was treated so quickly!
