Please help me if you can to raise some money. Thank you in advance for your love and support. If I can help comfort any other expectant mums with a bit of Ice then I will be made up. This is why.........

Six weeks ago whilst attending a routine midwife appointment, I was rushed to Arrowe Park in an ambulance as my blood pressure was sky high. (The highest my midwife had seen). On arrival at the hospital my worst fears were realised. I had preeclampsia and my legs were sooo swollen I could hardly walk. This was the beginning of four weeks of extremely worrying and trying times.

To cut a long story short, I was induced early and after 8 hours of labour I ended up having an emergancy c-section. Because of nature of my pregnancy with preeclampsia I was in the High Dependency Unit on the labour ward and thank goodness I was. After having my gorgeous baby boy I started to feel extremely unwell. My preeclampsia turned to elcmapsia and I started having extreme temperatures and Rigor fits. The staff on the HDU were just amazing. I had one to one care day and night. And as my condition got worst I had several nurses and consultants all looking after me. Sadly I ended up with several infections one of which caused me to get Sepsis.

To help with the Sepsis and to bring my temperature down i needed fluid, however because of the eclampsia fluid was the last thing my body needed. I was already soo swollen with liquid (4 stone heavier than i am now) Infact the swelling got that bad I got pulmonary oedema which is water on the lungs. At this point I was extremely poorly and needed dehydrating asap. However I was so hot with temperature all I wanted was fluid to drink.

It was at this point I asked the consultant if they had any ice I could suck on to keep mouth wet as I was so dry. Apparently they used to have an ice machine but it broke and that was that with NHS funding being the way it is. But pregnant women need ice!

At that point I said to the consultant, ’If you save my life, I will buy you a ice machine’. We laughed but I was serious. Ice would have been soooo amazing to me at several point during my hospital stay. From headaches, to swelling, to a dry mouth, for my forehead and neck when I was so hot.

My health got worst and 48 hours after giving birth I was separated from my baby and my husband and taken to intensive care. It was heartbreaking for us all. For four days I was away from my new born and I frightened the life out of my husband.

Thanks to the dedicated staff in Labour HDU and ITU, I am on the mend. The consultants and nurses that I joked with did save my life and got me back to my family. So I would like to stick to my end of the deal and buy the Labour ward an Ice machine as my way of thanking them for keeping my little family together and safe.