Madoc arrived early – in middle of trip to venice
THREE months before their first baby was due, Emily and Alun Edwards booked a trip to Venice.
But what was meant to be a few days sightseeing in a beautiful city before their baby arrived turned into an altogether more dramatic trip.
On their second day, Emily began feeling pains she hadn’t felt before.
Around 12 hours later, she was in surgery in an Italian hospital as her baby was delivered by C-section 11 weeks early.
Madoc and his parents spent the next two months in hospital in nearby Padova before finally being transferred back to Cardiff on December 22.
He was discharged at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales on Christmas Day - still 11 days before his due date of January 11, 2019.
Madoc will this weekend turn one at a Halloween-themed party complete with some Italian touches.
The couple went to Venice for a break in October 2019. They’d checked and double checked their travel insurance and despite being well within the window for pregnant women to fly safely, they had a doctor’s letter saying Emily was fine to fly.
They arrived on Thursday, and spent their time exploring Venice and on the Friday night had been to a Vivaldi concert when Emily began feeling something different from the baby.
“I thought ‘this baby is quite excited’ but it felt different to other movements.
“I looked it up on online and it said you can have Braxton Hicks contractions and as it was my first baby, I just thought it was the baby growing and my body stretching.”
Back at their hotel, around midnight, Emily told husband Alun the pains were regularly 20 minutes apart and she called the assessment unit back home in Cardiff.
Their advice was to get it checked out.
They left their hotel, walking around a mile to the hospital.
Only expecting a check-up, she’d only taken her handbag, not an overnight bag.
Despite very little English being spoken, a monitor was put on the baby and she was told she’d probably be fine but was then sent to a gynaecologist.
Through broken English, he told first-time mum Emily she was 2cm dilated.
Initially told she would be moved to Milan, she was instead taken to Padova, via an ambulance boat.
“It was a feeling of complete disbelief and just complete fear.
“I was completely aware that babies do come early but you hear about people having them a few weeks early. If we’d have been in this country, the first thing I would have asked was what were our chances but I couldn’t”.
Google told her husband there was a 90% chance the baby would survive, but that wasn’t enough to reassure Emily.
“In that moment it was one in ten babies aren’t OK and that seemed too much.”
As she arrived at the next hospital she hoped that labour could be stopped but the contractions became more regular, longer and more intense
She was then told the baby was breech and she would need a caesarean.
Her husband, 31, wasn’t allowed in the room so all Emily, 33, could see were the concerned faces of the staff nearest her.
As he came out, there was no cry. “It could have been a minute, or it could have been five, but to hear it was huge relief”.
Weighing just 3lb when he was born at 1.30pm, Madoc had to be put on a ventilator and while he was shown to his mum she wasn’t allowed that all important first hug.
“I remember thinking just how tiny his face was,” Emily recalls.
He was transferred to neonatal intensive care and while his dad could visit, it was another 24 hours before Emily was allowed to see her son properly for the first time.
Madoc was kept in hospital for two months.
His parents rented an apartment minutes from the hospital where Alun was able to work during the day until visiting hours which were 3pm until 7pm every day.
As a new mum, she wanted to breastfeed, but couldn’t even hold Madoc.
“On the third day after he was born, I started pumping because it was the only thing I could do that no-one else could.
“We couldn’t even change his nappy for the first few weeks so I thought this was the one thing I could provide that a doctor and nurse couldn’t.”
She would express eight to ten times a day, and then the Italian system is for that milk to be treated before being given to the baby.
As she had extra milk, she donated it to the hospital’s milk bank - something not available here - but something that premature babies in particular benefit from.
They finally came home on December 22, but in the build-up had to liaise between the Italian hospital and UHW. There were also long negotiations with their insurers.
Despite having thoroughly checked their travel insurance, because the baby was not named on the policy it was described as a “grey area” as to whether his treatment, and their stay would be covered.
Madoc spent three days in UHW before being discharged home to Fairwater, Cardiff, on Christmas Day.
Until he’s 18 months, he’ll be under the care of a consultant.
While Madoc grew in strength, it was a harder time for his mum.
“You’re encouraged to get out and about and go to groups and things but we had to stay away for 12 weeks because there was a risk of him picking up something like a chest infection which would have landed him back in hospital.”
Because staying away was for his health, it didn’t feel that bad but at times it did feel quite isolating.
“For a long time I felt quite different to a lot of other mums.
“When you go to a group and introduce yourself and say how old your baby is, I’d have to explain every time because he was so small.”
“Now as he approaches one, he’s fine as far as I am concerned and the doctors say he’s a healthy one year old boy.”
Emily has fundraised for both the hospital in Italy who cared for them, and Scips, which supports parents who are experiencing a stressful time at the Special Care Baby unit at The University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.
“I don’t want to scare people because pregnancy can be a scary time anyway and you hear all sorts about what can go wrong, but it can happen. Lots of babies have complications but we’ve been incredibly lucky.
“If it does, I just want people to know there can be good news at the end.”