I am 45 years old, Chinese, and I live in Germany. I have two daughters, one was born naturally in Egypt in 2000, and the other was born dramatically on 22.10.2014 in Hamburg, Germany.
I have no memory of the day my daughter was born, and her father had to tell me the story of her delivery. The day she was born, I’d gotten ready for bed while my ex (we broke up about 4 years ago) was watching TV. Suddenly, I shouted loudly “I think our daughter is coming!” (my due day was some days later). He rushed in to see me and determined that we needed to get to the hospital. We were told not to drive ourselves, so he called an ambulance.
Upon arrival, a midwife checked me and told that I was just 3 cm dilated. The midwife suggested we go for a walk to try and advance labor. I refused and screamed “I can’t…I want to die!”. I knew this pain since I had experienced it in 2000, but I have never shouted “I want to die!”, so I must assume that I was in much greater pain than with my first delivery. We chose to stay in the room and practiced breathing exercises.
While we were doing the exercises, my eyes suddenly rolled back in my head, white foam begin coming from my mouth, and my legs began cramping. My ex immediately pressed the emergency button. The nurses came, following the doctors. I was rushed to the emergency room, had an emergency C section.
Kaylee was not breathing at first, but she began shortly after the delivery. I was struggling to breathe also. I bled seriously and had 3000 ml of blood products to replace all that I had loss. The doctors decided to perform a hysterectomy and they saved my life. The AFE caused me to have a minor stroke and I was in the ICU for more than 10 days. When I awoke, I’d been transferred from the ICU to the stroke unit. I couldn’t remember anything. I even forgot that I was pregnant. I was unable to breastfeed Kaylee, I couldn’t walk at the beginning, I couldn’t raise my left arm, the right side of my body felt tingly, I couldn’t speak normally, and I was restricted to laying on my right side.
After a month at the hospital, I was transferred to rehab facility. I went to speech therapy, physiotherapy, ergo therapy. In rehab, I discovered that I may be able to breastfeed Kaylee and asked if I was able to begin given the medications I was on. It was not recommended, but I insisted, and she agreed to allow it but under a doctor’s care. I asked my ex to get a breast pump and I began trying to pump for Kaylee. Unfortunately, it was too late, as I had been given medicine to stop milk production while I was in the ICU. I was very sad and a month later I started to have depression and cried every day.
In February, I finally went home. I had to take Kaylee to therapy every day, I could walk but only slowly. In Germany, there is no lift, I had to carry her up and down. I still experience dizziness, but I was able to return to work in 2016. In 2015, I became Christian, God has saved our lives. I am really thankful that we live happily and healthily.