A grieving mother is going public with her story after her baby son was born stillborn at 32 weeks.
Kristy Watson is a 20 year-old resident of Victoria, Australia who was ecstatic when she became pregnant with the baby boy. Since she had already suffered three miscarriages, she dubbed the unborn child her “miracle baby.”
Not very long into her pregnancy, however, Kristy began experiencing swelling in her face, hands and feet, blurry vision and crippling headaches that lasted for weeks.
She met with doctors to talk to them about the constant pain that she was in at 26 weeks, but she said they sent her home repeatedly by telling her that her symptoms were simply a normal part of pregnancy.
Things took a devastating turn at 32 weeks, when Kristy almost died from undiagnosed pre-eclampsia. It was only then that she learned her unborn baby had died in the womb.
“I had driven myself to the hospital that morning to find out two hours later that he had already passed,” Kristy recalled.
“The worst thing about pre-eclampsia is that I didn’t get told I had it until I had the nurse sat on the end of my bed at 32 weeks and tell me my precious little Kaycen no longer had a heartbeat,” Kristy said, referring to the name that she had chosen for her son. “No words you ever want to hear, no words you ever imagine hearing so far into your pregnancy. I knew from 26 weeks something wasn’t right. From the horrible swelling in my feet hands and face, the headaches that lasted weeks on end, the blurry vision, my blood pressure going up and down, I knew that this weren’t just normal ‘pregnancy symptoms.’ But after numerous visits to doctors, being in and out of hospital – even trying to contact another hospital for a second opinion, I was told it was just normal.”
Kristy continued:
“Mine was left too late, I had already lost my son before he got to chance to see the light of day – and my pregnancy almost killed me.
A week later and my body’s was still fighting for my life because when it was too late, I was told I had severe pre-eclampsia. My kidneys were failing, my blood pressure was so high it nearly caused me to have a stroke or seizure, my body was fighting so hard for too long to keep my boy alive that it took his life in order to keep mine.
‘If only they had done an ultrasound that day to see that my placenta was failing, if only they had done my blood to see how toxic my bloods really were at that stage. It may not had changed the outcome of what happen but the thing is I will never ever know.
‘I don’t want to play the blame game but to be so neglected and feel like I wasn’t listened to by people who I put in the hands of the life I was creating and to be let down as much as I was is not something I would wish on my worst enemy.”
“I was in hospital again for the exact same things as every other time, I felt stupid, I felt like they were just thinking I was complaining about my pregnancy but in reality I knew something was just not right.”
They told me they were going to give me an ultrasound but the doctor was in a meeting and I had to wait two hours to be sent home once again with no blood or ultrasound done, just to take Panadol for my headaches. That was three days before I felt my son never move again. Three days before I got told that I had severe pre-eclampsia.
Three days before I had to be induced and be in labour for 12 hours before I finally hold my breathless, lifeless son.”
Kristy is hoping that her story will serve as a warning to expectant mothers who are being told that nothing is wrong with them by doctors during pregnancy.
“I had to go from having my whole lifeline, my world move around and be healthy in my belly to then be induced to deliver my sleeping baby. I had loss my gorgeous little boy due to the system letting me down and not listening to me when I knew something was wrong.
I want people to know my story so they know when their gut is telling them that something is not right to fight for answers… to make sure they are listened to because I now have to go home to a nursery full of everything I needed to raise my little boy now to an empty cot that my son never got to lay in, to books I never got to read him, to his favourite outfit I never got to dress him in all because I was not heard.
I now go home empty handed with a heart so broken that it’s going to take a long time to heal. I don’t want this to be looked at as a blame on anyone. I want people to know what I went through and in any way help prevent such a thing happening to someone else. Please listen to your body.
“I want to raise awareness so no mother, no family ever has to go through the pain, heartbreak and loss I’ve had to go through,” she concluded. “It’s been rough but I know I’m doing what I can to make my little one proud. I know my little Kaycen will live on through me and everyone’s hearts he touched.”