Hooked up to machines, Jenna Carr is lying awake in her hospital gown as she hears the sheer panic unfold behind the drapes. She's having an emergency C-section in a bid to save her life, but her labour is fast becoming a living nightmare. As a former doctor, she is all too aware of the worrying medical terms being thrown about among the junior surgeons, one of whom asked 'how to scrub' just moments earlier.
She's losing more blood by the second and fears this is the end. "There's massive bleeding, I can’t control it, she's lost two litres already," exclaims one. Suddenly, several consultants storm into the emergency theatre and surround her after a warning signal goes off, and together they manage to stop the bleeding after almost three litres is lost.
Her baby is alive and crying, and she gets to feel the soft touch of his skin against her chest. A week later, she walks out of the hospital feeling lucky to have made it with her healthy baby in tow, but argues it shouldn't have to be this way. Like the 1,300 women who shared their "harrowing" birth stories for The Birth Trauma Inquiry, published last Monday, Jen, 35, is sharing hers with the Mirror in a stand against the treatment of women in maternity wards across the UK.
'I was left shaking in pool of blood after baby almost died in labour - but all I got was a leaflet' Jen and João with their eldest Leo ( Image: Supplied) Jen says she feels lucky to be alive following her traumatic birth of baby Luca ( Image: Supplied.
