Couple praise medical care after their daughter’s traumatic birth
Sophie Baxter with her parents Alan and Katherine Baxter.
Life for a Tweedmouth couple changed dramatically in the matter of just two weeks last March, when what appeared to be a normal pregnancy turned into an emergency Caesarean to save the life of mother and child.
Alan and Katherine Baxter spoke to the Advertiser this week, at a time when they would have been celebrating their daughter Sophie’s first birthday, had she not been born 13 weeks early, weighing just 1lb 13oz.
Alan, 34, is an investigations officer with Midlothian Council, while Katherine, 35, used to work at Fox Fleming accountants in Duns, but is now a full-time mum to Sophie.
Katherine was just an hour away from organ failure when doctors at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s Simpsons Centre decided they had to carry out an emergency C-section after pre-eclampsia threatened the lives of both Katherine and Sophie.
Katherine and Alan, speaking about their terrifying situation to help raise awareness of pre-eclampsia, praised the midwives at Berwick Infirmary for picking up on early signs of pre-eclampsia, which can interfere with the placenta’s ability to deliver oxygen and nutrition to the foetus, and which usually occurs after 27 weeks.
At Katherine’s 25-week check-up with midwives in Berwick it was discovered she had high blood pressure. She was monitored closely and was then sent to Borders General Hospital, still with high blood pressure.
After a week of monitoring at home, Katherine was taken back to the BGH, where doctors found that, at 26 weeks, Sophie was measuring small.
Scans were carried out and it was found that there was reduced blood flow to Sophie, and then protein was found in Katherine’s urine, a sign, along with high blood pressure, of pre-eclampsia.
Doctors told Alan and Katherine that it looked like Sophie may be born as early as 30 weeks.
“We didn’t think there was much chance for her,” said Katherine. “They gave me steroid injections in my leg to help strengthen Sophie’s lungs, which are among the last things to develop. I was then transferred to the Simpsons in Edinburgh just before 27 weeks, and I was going to be in there until she arrived. There was constant scans, blood tests and monitoring of my blood pressure.
“I was quite ill by that point and I was one hour from organ failure when they decided to deliver.”
Alan said: “If it wasn’t for the midwives at Berwick picking up on it I don’t know where we would be today.
“The whole thing changed so quickly. The placenta failed and the toxins can either go into the baby or back into the mother, and then organs can fail and ultimately then heart failure.”
“It was kinda scary,” added Katherine. “We were really scared about what was going to happen. She was only 1lb 13oz and her heartbeat wasn’t doing too well.
“We were told not to expect her to cry, but she did, which was amazing. She was breathing on her own for about half an hour and then she was put onto a ventilator and later a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure machine).”
In all, the couple went from thinking nothing was wrong at all to having a daughter in a serious condition in hospital in just two weeks.
As soon as she was delivered, Sophie was whisked away to the neo-natal unit’s intensive care section, where she remained for seven weeks, before spending another three weeks in the high dependency unit and a further two in the special care section.
Katherine was unable to see Sophie when she was delivered because she was so unwell herself, with two dedicated teams of doctors and nurses in theatre to care for mother and daughter.
Katherine eventually got to see her newborn daughter when she was a day old.
“I was in for six nights, and I don’t think they were that keen to let me out even then, but I was desperate to get out,” said Katherine.
“But it was so hard to leave Sophie, it seemed so unnatural to come home having had a baby but not have her with us.”
Alan added: “It felt like something was missing, there were cards, presents, a cot - everything here apart from our baby, so it was tough. We called the hospital every night to see how things were, and the staff up there were just wonderful.”
Because Sophie was in an incubator, only nurses and Alan and Katherine were allowed to touch her, and the couple became quite adept at changing nappies through the side of the incubator.
“If you can change a nappy through two holes in an incubator you can change a nappy anywhere,” joked Alan.
But, it was a difficult time for the couple, who didn’t get to hold their daughter properly until she was three weeks old. It was another seven weeks until her grandparents were able to cuddle her.
“It took quite a long time for me to feel like her mummy,” said Katherine.
There are not many symptoms of pre-eclampsia, however high blood pressure, severe headaches and swelling of the hands and feet are tell-tale signs.
Katherine said: “I had no scans between 12 and 20 weeks and no midwife appointments before 25 weeks.
“I was having a run-of-the-mill pregnancy, and hadn’t even had much morning sickness.”
Katherine suffered migranes anyway, so although she experienced some severe headaches while pregnant she thought nothing of it, having no idea about the symptoms of pre-eclampsia.
Meanwhile, Alan, desperate to understand what was going on, and get his head round ‘doctor speak’ turned to the internet to find out more.
He found the Bliss charity’s website, a site about premature babies which is written by parents, and a blog by a man whose wife was going through a similar situation, which he said helped him to make sense of everything that was going on.
While Sophie was in hospital, the couple travelled up and down from Tweedmouth to Edinburgh six days a week to see her, with friends from Dalkeith spending a Sunday at the hospital to give Alan and Katherine a day off, although it didn’t stop them worrying about their tiny daughter.
Sophie’s first feed was 0.5ml every three hours through a syringe into the stomach. It was nine weeks before Katherine got the chance to feed Sophie herself
Katherine said: “I was terrified to touch her the first time they took me down to see her because she was so small and fragile looking.”
“Her skin was red and see-through because she was so early,” added Alan
Sophie still only weighed 5lb 6oz when Alan and Katherine were able to bring her home, which was only just before when her due date had been, after completing three sleep studies at the hospital to ensure all was well.
“She is still a little bit small, she’s in six to nine month-old clothes, but in every other way you would never know she was premature,” said Katherine. “She is right on track for with her development.”
“She’s a fighter, really determined,” said Alan. “They nurses kept saying she was fiesty!
“We’re very lucky, compared to what could have happened, althouth there was one scare when she was feeding and she went blue and and floppy and the nurses rushed in - that was very scary.”
After a hectic period while Sophie was in hospital, everything hit home when the couple got their daughter home.
Katherine suffered post-traumatic stress and post-natal depression and needed some counselling
“You get through it when you have to, but then you come home and everything hits you,” said Katherine.
“That was pretty hard, but Alan and our families and neighbours supported me through it.”
Both parents believe that more needs to be done in the early stages of pregnancy to make expectant mothers aware of the symptoms of pre-eclampsia, and the pair also feel more checks could be carried out earlier in the pregnancy, although they accept that this has cost implications.
“Pre-eclampsia normally doesn’t come in until 27 weeks, but you just don’t know, it moves so fast and it is such a scary thing and dangerous for mother and baby,” said Alan. “The midwives here were brilliant, they were right on the ball.”
It costs £10,000 a week per baby in the intensive care unit at the Simpson due to staffing and equipment costs.
In the unit there is one nurse per baby, which drops to one nurse to every three babies in the high dependency unit.
Following their experience in the unit, Alan is planning to climb Ben Nevis in the near future to help raise money for the unit.
However, after experiencing the trauma of such a sudden change in what appeared to be a normal pregnancy, and the subsequent premature birth of Sophie, the couple are keen to share their knowledge and experience with other families who have gone through, or are going through a similar situation.
The couple have been attending a premature baby support group in Edinburgh, to share their experiences with other parents, and Alan and Katherine would be keen to set up a similar group locally if there was the interest.
Alan said: “We’ve made a lot of friends through Bliss, the baby forums online and the support group we are going to. It is very useful to have friends who have premature babies. It is good to have that network because premature babies are very different to full term ones, although we’ve been lucky with Sophie.
“There are no support groups in this area for this type of thing, so if any families of premature babies are out there who have been through it, or are going through it, we are happy to meet up to have a coffee and a chat.”
Anyone with a premature baby, or who may be going through a similar situation to Alan and Katherine, can contact them through the Advertiser on 01289 334422 or adam.drummond@tweeddalepress.co.uk
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
