Britain's Got Talent 2023 finalist Amy Lou Smith has opened up about her 'terrifying' first pregnancy and birth that left her with post traumatic stress disorder.
Amy Lou Smith wowed the Britain's Got Talent judges with her audition for the show earlier this year, singing a rendition of Beyonce's ballad Listen and securing four 'yeses.'
During the audition, the sunbed shop receptionist told Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and new judge Bruno Tonioli that she was 30 weeks pregnant, earning a heartwarming 'ah' from the crowd as she rubbed her baby bump. But as viewers of the show tuned in to watch her pre-recorded performance, it was revealed that Amy herself missed tuning in as she was in hospital cradling her newborn baby Aida.
Speaking about the surreal experience of watching herself on TV just hours after giving birth, Amy told MailOnline, "We watched the audition from the hospital bed on my phone, so it was the tiniest screen, but it was such a special moment between my family and I.
"We were all together huddled around a tiny phone screen, but it's a moment we will always remember. We had our own viewing party, of sorts, on the ward. Aida slept through most of the show, but she made sure she was awake to see herself on screen.
"I've had such a lovely response from people who have watched my audition – it feels like Aida has been born into one big BGT family – one day old and she's already in the papers! So I think she's going to be a handful, seeing as she's had the celebrity treatment at 24 hrs old. The kindness I have received from people has been so special and I keep pinching myself.'
Following the interest fans have shown in her story, Amy has now opened up about her 'terrifying' first pregnancy and birth story, sharing that she 'nearly lost her life.'
Speaking to MailOnline, Amy revealed that while giving birth to her first child Hudson, who is now four she 'nearly lost my life'. She said, "I nearly lost my life after my first birth following complications with sepsis, it was really touch and go."
She also shared, "I was very poorly carrying him. We weren't sure what was going on but he was small, too. And the last five weeks, I couldn't get out of bed."
Amy Lou detailed how as Hudson arrived, she collapsed due an un-discovered abscess that was growing unseen inside her stomach. The birth had caused the abscess to burst and left her body flooded with infection. “I had sepsis and my organs were deteriorating,” she said.
Recalling the ordeal, which was so traumatising she said it took three years before she could even think about trying for a second baby, she told MailOnline, "It was a month before I got out of hospital. And I didn't hold Hudson for the first three months of his life. I never got to know him in the days after his birth. I was traumatised."
But now, on the other side of the dreadful experience, Amy Lou can see the light at the end of the tunnel. She told The Mirror, "What’s perfect is my family. I have two healthy, beautiful children and having nearly lost it all, I know how precious that is.”
During Monday's BGT semi-final, Amy sang Jennifer Hudson's And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls, and got through to the show's final which will air on Sunday 4 June.
