Television presenter Emma Crosby has spoken out about how ‘counting her kicks’ alerted her that something was wrong with her baby and prevented her pregnancy from ending in tragedy.
Emma’s daughter Mary is now three months old but her arrival into the world didn’t exactly go to plan, as the journalist (who has previously worked for Sky News and Channel 5 News) explained to the Mail On Sunday.
After a “textbook perfect” pregnancy, at 39 weeks Emma noticed that her little bundle of joy wasn’t as active as usual but was told everything was fine after going to the hospital to get things checked out.
When she approached 41 weeks, she visited her midwife and it was decided that she would be induced if labour didn’t happen naturally within the next seven days. This appointment put her mind at ease so she and her partner Jeremy went home.
However that night, Emma knew that something just wasn’t right. She said: “I’d had a bath to relax me and felt the baby kick while I was in the water, but by 1am I was still awake. I realised she hadn’t moved for quite some time and the worry set in. I couldn’t shake the feeling that all was not well.
“A friend had introduced me to the Kicks Count website, which tells you to call your midwife or maternity unit immediately if you think your baby’s movements have slowed down or stopped altogether. Despite it being the middle of the night, with that advice in my head, I called the hospital.”
She was apparently told to lie on her left side as this is apparently the best position to feel a baby’s movements but after two hours of nothing, she called the maternity unit again and went into hospital.
Proud to be a Kicks Count” ambassador, a great charity helping save unborn babies lives. Here’s my MOS article. https://t.co/oCbBDwC2c4
— Emma Crosby (@emmaccrosby) March 13, 2016
Emma was taken to an assessment room and the baby’s heartbeat was checked. It was decided that she would be induced there and then however this relief was only temporary as the baby’s heart rate suddenly dropped and the reporter ended up having a Caesarean section.
“I was given a spinal block so I couldn’t feel or move anything and I remember being very spaced out. Suddenly Mary was out but her cry sounded strange,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
It turns out that her baby girl had inhaled meconium (baby’s first waste) and needed both oxygen and antibiotics to avoid infection. She was rushed to intensive care.
Thankfully the tot responded well and after spending a week in hospital, along with her mother, she was allowed to go home.
Emma revealed: “Afterwards I was told I’d come into hospital in the nick of time. But I shudder to think what might have happened if I had dismissed my concerns and gone back to sleep that night.
“I’m so very grateful that I knew about the importance of monitoring foetal movement, otherwise Mary might not be with us today, which is a terrifying thought.”
There is no set number of kicks that a woman should feel during pregnancy and not all stillbirths can be prevented but Kicks Count (a charity for which Emma is now an ambassador) do urge women to contact their midwife or doctor if they notice a decrease in the pattern of their baby’s movements.
Top image via Twitter/Emma Crosby
