Our baby was poisoned: Dad smelled danger

for her Doctors said her womb was the safest place Markus, baby, but mother’s instinct was telling Janine story 27, from the West Midlands, a very different

As a mum of three, I knew those back pains anywhere.

‘It feels like I’m in labour,’ I said to my twin sister Jemma. But I was only 14 weeks pregnant.

I tried not to worry. But when I noticed bleeding, I feared the worst.

‘I must be having a miscarriage,’ I panicked.

I’d had a bit of bleeding at about six weeks, but early scans had showed the baby was fine.

But now, Jemma took me to the hospital, while my other children, Ella-louise, then 7, Oliver, 6, and Harry, 3, were being looked after by their nan.

Because I was under 16 weeks pregnant, doctors on the Maternity Ward sent me to A&E instead.

‘We think you may have miscarried,’ doctors warned.

Please no! I thought. Thankfully, a scan showed the baby was alive and I went home.

For the next few months, I constantly worried. Then, when

I was just over 33 weeks, I started bleeding.

I was kept in overnight at the hospital.

When the baby’s heart rate kept dropping, the doctors weren’t worried.

‘It’s just a loss of contact with the machine,’ they reassured me, sending me home the next day.

But, the following morning, I felt a gush down below.

‘My waters have broken,’ I told my husband, James.

‘It’s bright yellow!’ I gasped, utterly horrified.

Having three children already, I knew it should be a clear liquid. Not bright yellow!

Instantly, I knew something was wrong.

Terrified, James raced me back to the hospital.

My baby didn’t seem to be in distress, and I wasn’t in full labour yet. So I was kept in and monitored.

Two days later, my waters were leaking and a disgusting dark-green colour, and I’d developed a temperature and a red rash on the lower half of my body. And then...

‘The baby’s heart rate is dropping,’ a nurse said.

Within hours my fever got worse and I texted James.

Something isn’t right, I wrote. Then, the next morning, the doctors said the baby would be safer inside my womb and they’d induce me at 37 weeks.

But my mother’s instinct kicked in.

‘I’m not leaving,’ I insisted. ‘Something’s really wrong with the baby.’

By now, the pads in my knickers were dark green and I feel lucky every day that Jacob is here with us every bone in my body was telling me something was seriously wrong.

‘Look,’ I cried, showing the green pad to the midwife. She looked concerned, went to fetch a consultant.

‘We need to induce you now,’ he explained.

‘Now?!’ I panicked. James was at home with the children and my mum and Jemma were on holiday. So James arranged childcare and raced to the hospital – just as doctors hooked me up to a drip of drugs to induce me. When they noticed the baby’s heart rate was dropping every time I had a contraction, they panicked.

‘We need to take you down for an emergency Caesarean,’ the doctor said.

‘We need to get the baby out now.’ Within 10 minutes, I was in theatre and holding James’ hand as they lifted out our son Jacob.

‘He’s got a rash,’ James gasped, as we briefly saw our little boy. Weighing just

4lb 6oz, we only got a quick glimpse of Jacob before he was rushed to Neonatal Intensive Care. ‘What’s that rash all over him?’ I sobbed. ‘He smelt funny, too,’

you think you’re nurturing your unborn child, not poisoning it

James said, worried.

By now I was extremely poorly, so doctors stitched me up and pumped me full of antibiotics to try to bring down my temperature.

I was pretty out of it until I woke up the next day.

‘Where’s Jacob?’

I asked.

‘He’s got an infection,’ the nurses explained.

He’d been given antibiotics and had a lumbar puncture, amongst other tests.

It was agonising waiting for more news.

Finally, later that day, a nurse wheeled me up to see him on the Neonatal Ward.

I burst into tears when I saw his tiny body covered in tubes and wires.

I was allowed to hold him very quickly, and I’d never felt something so tiny and so fragile in my arms.

Soon, he had to go back in the incubator to try to stabilise his temperature.

I also stayed in hospital, on antibiotics, to try and clear up the rash and recover from the Caesarean.

I visited Jacob the next day – and, by the third day, doctors had made a diagnosis.

‘Jacob’s got sepsis,’ the doctor explained. Blood poisoning. ‘What?’ I replied. ‘I’ve never heard of it.’ Doctors explained how sepsis occurs when the body reacts to an infection by attacking its own organs and tissues.

It’s life-threatening unless caught early and treated.

They said I’d probably developed sepsis after my waters had broken early.

And because Jacob was inside me, his blood was being poisoned, too.

My body had been killing my unborn baby!

It explained the green pads and the pungent smell when Jacob was born.

When they said that, in some cases sepsis is fatal, I felt so grateful that I had trusted my instincts.

‘If I’d gone home and waited until 37 weeks, he wouldn’t have made it,’ I said to James.

There was no doubt in my mind.

After four days in hospital and a course of antibiotics, I was well enough to go home.

Jacob came home after 10 days at the hospital.

Now 17 months, Jacob is walking around and into anything noisy!

Ella-louise, now 8, Oliver, 6, and Harry, 4, adore him.

Looking at his chunky little arms and legs, you’d never imagine how tiny he was when he was born. Or, that my body had been slowly poisoning him in the womb.

Not a day goes by when I don’t feel lucky he’s here.

I’m angry the sepsis wasn’t picked up sooner, and I’m telling my story to try and make sure other people spot it earlier than we did.

The Sepsis Trust has information online about spotting the signs.

When you’re pregnant, you think you’re nurturing your unborn child, not poisoning it!

I’m just so glad I listened to my gut instinct.

If I hadn’t, my little boy might not be here.