'I almost died in childbirth, but my partner saved me with a kiss'

A mum who nearly died from suspected sepsis during childbirth and lost five pints of blood says her partner saved her life when he noticed something was wrong when he kissed her. Kerri-Louise Gilchrist, 33, had “such an easy” birthing experience with her eight-year-old son Teddy - but giving birth to her daughter Layla, now 11 months, was life-threatening.

The mum-of-two had been induced when her boyfriend, Hugh Marshall, 35, noticed her cold temperature and blue lips when he was kissing her. He alerted doctors to the signs of sepsis and she was give an IV drip of antibiotics. Her little girl, Layla, had to be cut out through an episiotomy and was delivered with a ventouse.

Kerri was left bleeding with her feet in stilts for three hours waiting for doctors to remove her placenta. She lost 2885ml of blood and had to have two blood transfusions to save her life. Kerri, a carer from Great Malvern, Worcestershire, said: "My partner Hugh Marshall kept kissing me on the lips, but it wasn’t a proper kiss - it was a temperature check. He knew there was something wrong.

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“The nurses didn’t notice anything until my partner said to them, you’re not actually looking at your patient, her palms and lips are blue - that’s a sign of sepsis. I’d been like that for a couple of hours at that point. Within two minutes of him saying that, I had 11 people in the room.

“You have somebody that’s going to stand your ground for you. I was in no fit state to argue for myself, I couldn’t care for myself. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Hugh."

Kerri noticed her waters breaking on July 28 2024 when she was only 36 weeks and 5 days into pregnancy. She rang Worcester Hospital who told her twice over three days that she’d “probably just weed”.

Kerri said: “I’ve had a kid before, I knew my waters were going."

She rang for a third time on August 1, experiencing reduced mobility, and went into hospital. Kerri said: “They did the swab, came back and said, your waters are going. I’d been telling them that since Monday.

“I was induced at 7am on Friday August 2 morning for what ended up being a 36-hour labour until 11pm on Saturday night. I was pumped with all sorts because I couldn’t stand the pain, so I had an epidural. I’d give birth to my son again every day, it was so easy, but with Layla it was so, so painful."

She was put on a drip to treat sepsis when Hugh, a technology professional, noticed the signs. Kerri said: “They started the IV drip of antibiotics at 8pm on Friday. My daughter was still inside me and they said they wouldn’t give me a caesarean because there was somebody else waiting.

“The IV really hurt and I said that to them, it really hurts, it shouldn’t hurt. The state of my arm, the vein exploded and caused a blood clot."

Kerri was given an episiotomy when Layla started to go into stress. She said: “After they pulled Layla out, they left me in the stilts for three hours because they hadn’t got my placenta.

“My partner Hugh is the sweetest man ever, he doesn’t shout, he doesn’t lose his temper. But he did, and thank goodness he did because then they measured it and 2885ml - five pints of blood, over half my blood gone.

"That’s when they realised."

Kerri had two blood transfusions and spent four nights in hospital recovering. Luckily Kerri has made a good recovery - but did suffer with pain in her arm due to the blood clot damage.

She said: “I couldn’t hold my daughter for a couple of months, it hurt that much. I couldn’t breastfeed Layla because the trauma of the birth completely stopped my milk. They’re surprised I’m alive. They put it down as a pre-terminal event, which is the stage before death.

“I made a comment to the anaesthetist saying I was knocking on heaven’s door, and she said, Kerri, you were pounding.

“I’m a stubborn bugger. At some point in there they said, how are you awake? Let alone talking to us right now. I said, I will shut my eyes when I know that I’m going to live. Until that point, I’m not going to shut my eyes. There was a point where I don’t know if I died, but through the door I saw my mum who’d passed in April 2024. Staying awake was sheer willpower. Whenever I closed my eyes I saw my eight-year-old son, Teddy, and I’d force myself to open my eyes.

“Layla’s fine, she’s good - the one blessing in this. She had to stay in hospital for two days with an IV drip just in case sepsis had passed to her. But she’s great. Developmentally, she’s doing well. She’s totally brilliant, so funny.

“Everyone sees birth as this beautiful thing, but sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s life or death. Trust your gut - I know my body and I knew something was wrong.”

Justine Jeffery, Director of Midwifery for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We are sorry if Kerri is unhappy with the care she received from us. We are committed to providing the highest quality care for all the families we look after. Kerri was closely monitored by our team. It became clear that she would need to have her placenta safely removed under anaesthetic and in sterile conditions and she was transferred to an operating theatre as soon as one was available.

"Her blood loss was also closely monitored and she received a blood transfusion while in theatre and another one subsequently. She remained well and stable following this and was subsequently transferred to our postnatal ward before going home the following day.

"One of our senior midwives talked to Kerri about the concerns she had around aspects of her care following the birth of her baby, and we would welcome the opportunity to meet with her again if there are any new or unresolved issues she wants to talk through with us.”