EastEnders star's traumatic birth 8 weeks early - with no room at the hospital
The day got off to a very ordinary start. Daisy Aitkens was emptying the dishwasher in her pyjamas while her husband Neil got ready for work. Then her waters broke – eight weeks before her due date.
Daisy and Neil dashed to their car and rang the hospital where she was due to give birth, knowing she needed urgent care. But to their horror, the hospital wouldn’t admit her. “They were aware how early the baby was coming, and said they didn’t have enough beds in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,” recalls Daisy, 37.
“So we called the nearest hospital, which luckily was Chelsea and Westminster. I remember sobbing on the phone to the poor woman on the other end. She said, ‘Don’t worry, just come in and we’ll look after you’. She was wonderful.”
Daisy has written for the hit comedy My Family, appeared in episodes of EastEnders and Casualty, and wrote and directed British rom-com You, Me and Him, starring David Tennant. But she says her road to motherhood was filled with enough dramatic twists and turns to fill a TV script.
Daisy has miscarried three times prior to Ada (DAILY MIRROR)
Daisy with Ada, who is now four (DAILY MIRROR)At 21, she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, which can make it harder for a woman to conceive, and seven years later doctors discovered she also had an irregular shaped uterus. In Daisy’s case, her bicornuate uterus was so severe that her womb was effectively split in half, making it harder for her to carry a child. She suffered three devastating miscarriages and was warned she would probably experience complications during her latest pregnancy.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
“When you do have a successful pregnancy, the baby has less room to grow. I was aware of the risks and that my baby might come early, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Thankfully, I had an amazing team of midwives and consultants at the Chelsea and Westminster who took a great deal of care monitoring the pregnancy.
“On their suggestion, I started progesterone suppositories. I think they really helped to keep my baby in for as long as possible.” As a result, Daisy made it 32 weeks through pregnancy before her waters broke. Arriving at hospital, she was rushed into the operating theatre for an emergency caesarean.
“At that moment, the only thing that mattered was whether Ada was going to be OK,” says Daisy. “I can’t remember a huge amount about the C-section, except deciding that my only job was to breathe and trust that everyone knew what they were doing. And they did.
“Ada came out safely and hearing her first tiny cry made everything alright.” Because Ada was so premature, she weighed just three pounds. “You could fit her in two hands cupped together,” says Daisy.
Daisy with Judy Ledger and Georgia Tennant (DAILY MIRROR)Ada started life in an incubator, on oxygen, being fed through a tube and spent four weeks in neonatal intensive care as she built up the strength to breathe and feed for herself. Daisy and Neil spent 12 hours each day with Ada, but every evening they had to wrench themselves away as they were not allowed to stay there overnight.
“It’s an emotional rollercoaster,” says Daisy. “Every day you’re gripped with fear over the doctor’s rounds, how your baby got through the night, how much milk they’ve managed to keep down. At the same time, you are surrounded by other babies and parents, all suffering, all anxious. You sort of come together.
“I remember breaking down in tears one morning. I was in physical pain from the C-section and was questioning if I was mentally strong enough to get through this. A wonderful mother took me aside and gave me this pep talk. Her baby had been born when she was 24 weeks pregnant and she had already been there for three months.
“She told me I had to be strong for my baby. She told me to cry my last tear right there and then, then put on make-up every day and get through it – for Ada. She had kindness, empathy and strength to pick up this crumbling woman and help her through it.
“There were so many moments like this – the camaraderie and the joy when someone got to take their baby home gave us all hope. Once Ada was out of her incubator, I was able to hold her for hours at a time. At some point in the second week, I knew everything was going to be fine. She kept pulling the long feeding tube out of her nose. Clearly the whole thing really hacked her off and I thought, ‘Wow, she’s a fighter’. Something about her strength gave me great comfort.”
Tiny Ada weighed just three pounds (DAILY MIRROR)Daisy’s family and friends also rallied round with Ada’s godmother, the actress Georgia Tennant, providing “literally every breastfeeding hack known to woman”. While in hospital, Ada was diagnosed with a hole in her heart after Daisy raised concerns to doctors, but she has made remarkable progress and is now a happy and healthy four-year-old girl – and will have surgery to close the hole next year. Inspired by her experience, Daisy became a patron of the charity Baby Lifeline, alongside Georgia’s husband David Tennant. The charity was founded by Pride of Britain winner Judy Ledger to support frontline NHS staff and prevent injuries and deaths around childbirth.
Greggs, Costa & Pret coffees have 'huge differences in caffeine', says report
Daisy has also nominated the team at the Chelsea and Westminster for one of the charity’s Maternity Unit Marvel (MUM) Awards. The awards recognise outstanding care provided by midwives, doctors and paramedics across the UK, with the winners to be announced during a ceremony at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists this coming Thursday and invited to a reception at 10 Downing Street.
“I’ll be forever grateful to the nurses and doctors in intensive care who provided us with constant support,” says Daisy. “They were never too busy or too tired to answer my questions or nightly calls at 2am to check on how Ada was doing.
“The MUM Awards are a wonderful idea. It’s a gift to have another opportunity to thank these incredibly kind and talented professionals for doing one of the most important jobs– bringing new life safely into this world. I know a career in the NHS can be difficult. I have friends who are nurses and doctors. I just hope they know how important their work is.”
Find out more about the work of the charity Baby Lifeline at babylifeline.org.uk
Daisy with daughters Ada and Elodie (DAILY MIRROR)The facts
- Every day in the UK, 13 babies are stillborn or die within 28 days of being born.
- The neonatal mortality rate has declined over the past 40 years. However, it remains higher in the UK than in many comparable European countries, including Germany, Spain, and Ireland.
- Research shows the majority of these tragedies could be prevented by improving the equipment available to medical teams or addressing gaps in training and problems within the system.
- National charity Baby Lifeline aims to work with NHS teams to improve safety and maternity care by providing training for frontline staff and campaigning to ensure that the recommendations produced as a result of investigations into recent maternity scandals are implemented.
- The charity has launched the Maternity Unit Marvel (MUM) Awards to celebrate the medical staff whose outstanding care made the difference between life and death for mums and babies.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
