A brave Edinburgh mum has spoken of her traumatic experience with childbirth which left her and her 15-month-old baby boy lucky to be alive according to doctors.
Mum-of-two Charlotte Watson's two children were both born premature and while pregnant with her youngest baby, Clay, she woke up during the night to find her bed a pool of blood.
At this point Charlotte was only 31 weeks pregnant and was rushed to hospital for an emergency section. The same day, Clay was born exactly two months ahead of schedule and after asking doctors what caused the excessive bleeding, they said the suffered a abruption of the placenta.
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As a result, Charlotte was left bleeding profusely and doctors said that the placenta was 'hanging on by a thread' and she was at risk of losing both her own life and her baby's.
One year on from the traumatic experience, Charlotte has had time to reflect on her pregnancy and after speaking with another local mum, she decided she wanted to get her story out there and set up a local Facebook group.
After thinking she would struggle to attract members, Super Mummas has over 1,200 participants and Charlotte spends most of her time organising meet-ups, picnics and play-dates with fellow mums and has created the ultimate safe space for people to share experiences.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live about her experience during both pregnancies, the 33-year-old, who lives in Pilton, said: "Both my children were born premature for completely different reasons.
"I have a bicornate uterus which is more of a heart shape than on oval. When I was pregnant with Ellie, who is six in July, she was growing on one side and is is actually a deep heart so there was no space for her to grow.
"My waters broke at 32 weeks which is why I had to have an emergency section so there were a lot of complications. I was basically wrapped in bubble film the whole pregnancy with Ellie so she came because there was no space to move.
"They did say to me afterwards that if I ever had another pregnancy I would be quite high risk so we pretty much decided we weren't going to have other children. My husband Ross has other kids so we were quite happy with Ellie.
"Not that long ago we thought we'd have one more and that would be us. We discussed it because we knew the risks and the potential for another premature birth."
Charlotte was undergoing several tests and scans throughout her second pregnancy such as getting her cervix checked and receiving blood-thinning injections to prevent blood clots.
When she was at 17 weeks, her cervix was open and she was at a 70 per cent chance of having her baby within the next eight to ten weeks. Afterwards, she knew Clay was going to be born premature and around Christmas time, she was taken into hospital and operated on to stitch her cervix.
Charlotte continued to be monitored until 28 weeks and the doctors were happy to push her another three weeks. At this point, Charlotte has just lost her job after the company she worked for went into liquidation and she started struggling with mobility.
"It was really hard at that stage onwards," she continued.
"I got to 31 weeks and went to bed one night, it was about 5am in the morning when I woke up and felt all this liquid. I thought 'thought my waters had broke already?'. I went to the toilet and just saw loads of blood, it was pretty scary.
"I ran back through and turned on the bedroom light and just saw blood everywhere and started screaming. My fiancé at the time Ross got up and phoned an ambulance and I was just sitting rocking back and forth holding my tummy.
"At that time I thought I had lost my baby.
"It was discovered that I was having an abruption so off we went into theatre. I had Clay and he was 3lb 5oz when he was born at 31 weeks so he was so tiny. He was taken away and spent around five weeks in the maternity unit at the Royal Infirmary."
After getting out of hospital herself one week later, Charlotte travelled on the bus every day and spent 12 hours by Clay's bed watching him until he was allowed out weeks later.
Despite the premature birth, Clay was healthy but being so small, he had to be monitored to make sure he was drinking his fluids properly while growing naturally at the same time.
"We got him out and it was great," Charlotte said before asking doctors what actually caused the abruption. "They said they don't like to tell people while they are still in that situation but they said I had a placenta abruption.
"The doctor explained and said it was like a volcano erupting inside me. When they cut me open it was like a blood bath and blood clots had burst. The placenta was hanging on by a thread and had that snapped, Clay would have been gone and as I bled so much, I would have been gone too."
Charlotte and Ross happily agreed that they were not going to have any more children after the stress and complications of both births. At the same time, they had to try and explain to Ellie, who was four, that her baby brother isn't well and can't come home yet.
After months of digesting what had happened, at the end of 2022, Charlotte spoke with another mum about her experience for the first time and admitted it felt great to be so open about everything.
Charlotte continued: "I thought to myself how many people are out there feeling like this and not talking about it. I thought the best person for me to talk to was someone who had been through it all, rather than a professional who hasn't.
"That's where it all stemmed from. I thought I should put a group together and get mums involved so if anyone needed to speak about anything then we have provided an open space.
"I put my story up there about Clay and Ellie and since then so many mums have reached out with similar experienced. I have met 50 or 60 mums in the group. It even has members from Mexico who have joined, as well as locally like West, East and Midlothian."
As Charlotte is currently taking time out of work, she fills her day carrying out activities with members of the group such as fitness classes, walks, softplay and parents nights out.
Charlotte is working on the page daily, interacting with members and making posters and flyers. She has been blown away by the support and reaction to the group, with any other mums who have gone through similar experiences or wish to get involved being able to do so by clicking here.
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