New mum recalls surprise pregnancy moments before giving birth
Charlotte Wheeler-Smith who came back from a 7km run suffering from strange stomach cramps was astonished to find she was pregnant and about to give birth.
The confusion came after Charlotte continued to have her regular period and even a negative pregnancy test.
Speaking to Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins on Good Morning Britain, the new mum explained she called the doctor on returning from her run only to be told she had trapped wind or IBS.
An hour later, she went into labour and had her baby in her partner's flat. It was a dramatic and dangerous birth but little Evelyn is now well and thriving.
In her first TV interview, she said: "I was feeling uncomfortable on the Sunday morning, on Father’s Day. I actually thought I had period pains, so I took some paracetamol but then my boyfriend was a bit worried and called the GP. And the GP came and examined me and said I had some trapped wind and IBS and then an hour later Evelyn arrived."
Talking about the doctor leaving, she said: "I asked my boyfriend to go for a run, just to get him out of the house whilst I was dealing with this discomfort and I was walking up and down these very Dutch, very steep stairs and I thought, ‘I maybe I need to go to the bathroom because I have this trapped wind’ and then an umbilical cord came out and that’s when I realised something was happening. I called Dominic, and he arrived and we then delivered her in our hallway."
"It obviously was a massive shock for us both but instinct kicked in. We kept calm and I listened to my body, exactly what it wanted me to do," she continued.
They waited for the ambulance to arrive and she was met at the hospital.
Recalling the turn of events, Charlotte added: "Instinct just took over and I had to listen to my body… She was very, very poorly when she was born, an umbilical prolapse is pretty cataphoric even in a medical setting. But we resuscitated her and then the ambulance arrived and we received the best care here in the Netherlands."
Ben asked if being a fan of One Born Every Minute had helped them cope with the delivery, Charlotte admitted: "I had seen something like it before and I knew it wasn’t a good situation and I knew I had to get Evelyn out. I pushed with everything I had and she arrived."
Her boyfriend remembered CPR he had been taught at primary school to make sure his daughter was able to breathe properly. She added: "Dominic was absolutely incredible and we were able to keep Evelyn going until the ambulance arrived."
Her medic, Dr Sophie Van Der Schoor, admitted it was a rare situation and that the baby’s parents did an amazing job because their daughter was fighting for her life. She added they were so calm. “It’s really a wonderful story… she’s a strong girl. She’s now breathing by herself… it’s really a miracle."
The baby was helped to breathe and she was transferred to ICU and given cooling therapy to help combat the oxygen damage. Charlotte praised the team at the hospital who had saved her baby and she is hoping to take her daughter home in a week’s time.
On her mum and dad finding out they were grandparents, she added: "It was Dominic that phoned my mother. My parents were both out on a walk, because it was Father’s Day, and my mum actually fell over in a cow pat because she was so shocked. Dominic said ‘Charlotte’s had a baby and she’s not breathing’ and so my mother thought it was me that wasn’t breathing which caused even more panic."