Sick mum can’t cuddle newborn
A new mum is so unwell that she cannot communicate and is not able to cuddle her baby.
West Auckland woman Jazmin Hunter was diagnosed with hydrocephalus – a condition where fluid builds up in the brain – at the age of 13, her mum Barbara Hunter said.
A line was put into her brain to drain the fluid and release pressure but over the years she has been in and out of hospital with complications.
A few years ago, a shunt was put into her brain after the line failed. But shunt failures continued and she ended up in hospital in August.
While in hospital, 25-year-old Jazmin found out she was pregnant, with a due date of March 31.
The New Lynn woman had a healthy pregnancy up until the beginning of this year.
Barbara Hunter said her daughter was sleeping a lot, lethargic and would not wake to eat.
She was admitted to Auckland City Hospital but her health deteriorated. Barbara Hunter said her daughter underwent three operations on her brain, as well as numerous scans and tests, but doctors could not determine what the problem was.
Jazmin started to lose her speech, ability to chew and body movement and needed ‘‘pretty much 24-hour care’’.
When Jazmin was 33 weeks pregnant, doctors decided the best option was to deliver her baby. Her son Theo was born via caesarean on February 14.
‘‘She could not even hold her baby,’’ her mum said.
Jazmin was now starting to know Theo was there and trying to cuddle him as best she could.
But her decline in health remains a mystery.
Although ‘‘tiny’’ and in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, Barbara Hunter said Theo was doing well.
Barbara Hunter has had to resign from her job in order to care for her daughter and grandson but it will be waiting for her when she is able to go back.
She said the same had happened with Jazmin’s job as a legal secretary, and her boss had set up a Givealittle page to help support them while the two are in hospital and during recovery.