'I nearly died'- Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham opens up about birth to Amanda Holden
This Morning's Amanda Holden comforts the Formula 1 presenter as she relives the traumatic birth of her son Wilfred
Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham found herself overwhelmed with emotion on This Morning as she talked about the traumatic birth of her son Wilfred. The mum-of-1 was close to tears as she revealed she could have died when she developed postpartum pre-eclampsia after the birth, and her bladder almost burst. But luckily, Amanda Holden – who was 'moments from death' when she gave birth to her own baby in 2012 – was on hand to comfort the new mum.
Natalie, whose son was born in January, revealed she wasn't prepared for the complications that followed her problem-free pregnancy. "Maybe I used up all my good luck on the pregnancy - I didn't have any morning sickness, I had loads of energy, I felt amazing and was exercising up until my due date - it was a dream," she said.
The 36-year-old, who's married to Owain Walbyoff, realised something was wrong once she was 6 days overdue. "I was six days overdue and I noticed he just wasn't kicking as much. I just remember saying to my mum it just doesn't feel right," she said. "I had invested so much to make it the perfect birth and was told not to medicate it too much and to stay at home for as long as you can, but when you know something is wrong you should stand up and be assertive."
At hospital doctors found the baby's heart rate had started to drop, so they broke Natalie's waters but when they found meconium in her waters – baby poo that is dangerous if ingested – they had to perform an emergency caesarean. Luckily, the baby was healthy, but the drama wasn't over for Natalie and she was diagnosed with postpartum pre-eclampsia and her bladder almost burst.
"My blood pressure just shot up and had a risk of stroke… so I went back on high dependency and was really well looked after. I was moved to another ward and suddenly felt this stabbing pain in my bladder, and basically it had distended and had become very, very full very quickly and had gone four times it's maximum capacity."
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If her bladder had burst, Natalie may have lost her life. At this point, Amanda jumped up to give Natalie a hug.
"I really don't want to scare anyone," Natalie said. "But I do want to say to mums that have been through something to not be afraid to talk about it, because that really has been the thing that's helped me."
And Amanda added her own voice to Natalie's advice. "I don't want to take over from this, but we [me and my husband Chris Hughes] had a very awful experience, and we both went to therapy, and we were both diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress… both of us," Amanda said.
Photos: ITV
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