After the birth, doctors discovered that the cyst that the mother, Harriet, had on her right ovary had burst and was cancerous. Her premature birth allowed her to be treated in time.
“She saved my life.” In July last year, a Briton gave birth 12 weeks before her due date. A delay that saved his life, according to doctors, say The independent.
Harriet was originally due to give birth in early October. But on July 1, he, who was already a mother of two, called the emergency center after having stomach pains.
On their recommendation, she went to Broomfield Hospital, North East London, and about 20 minutes after being picked up, gave birth to Maddison naturally.
The premature baby was then admitted to the neonatology ward for treatment and the parents returned home three days later, leaving Maddison in hospital.
“It might have been too late”
It was while visiting her daughter on July 7 that Harriet decided to have a doctor check her out because she was having severe stomach pains. The specialists then discovered that a cyst on her right ovary, which had already been discovered in the twentieth week of her pregnancy, had grown, ruptured and was now cancerous.
A follow-up scan was originally scheduled for week 29 of the pregnancy, but Maddison arrived earlier. The doctors then informed Harriet that it “might have been too late” if she had given birth on the originally planned date.
As if the baby “knew he was coming sooner”
The mother of three has since had her right ovary and fallopian tube removed and started chemotherapy.
“It’s been six months but I’m fine and I’ve got my little girl by my side,” she told the British newspaper, before adding: “If Nicholas and I hadn’t been in hospital to visit Maddison, do I don’t think so, I would have bothered to be seen by a doctor.”
She said she was “too busy worrying about her newborn baby” to worry about her own health. “It was like she knew she had to come early to save my life.”
Maddison is in very good health and was able to return to the family home a few weeks after her birth. “She really saved my life, but she doesn’t want to hear that from me because she’ll use it against me when she’s a teenager,” the mother said.