Angelo and I had been together for 20 years and married for 15 when I fell pregnant. We were delighted and enjoyed every moment of it. I felt really well and continued to work, socialise and be active. We kept our pregnancy quiet until the sixth month – and no-one had any idea that we were in fact going to become parents. While I loved my job as a marketing manager, I was really looking forward to becoming a mum.
Three weeks before my due date, early on a Sunday morning, my waters broke. After four hours of contractions I had an epidural and, seven hours after labour began, our daughter Bianca arrived. She weighed 2.7kg, scored 9/10 and 9/10 for her APGAR tests and was described in the medical reports as a vigorous baby girl, born after an uncomplicated labour.
Sudden Trouble
But just two hours later, when we were still in the labour suite, Bianca stopped breathing. There was no noise – she just went white. We pressed the emergency button, a midwife rushed in followed by all the other staff who were paged – swooped her up and took her to the nursery, where she was resuscitated with oxygen via a mask and chest compressions. During this time Angelo watched from the nursery, while I was left in the birthing suite on my own, wavering between feelings of despair, that the worst outcome would eventuate, and clinging onto my belief that we’d have the best result.
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Source: Mother & Baby magazine, Jan/Feb 2012, page 51