YOUNG mum Mary Jamieson has recalled her shock at giving birth to a ‘hole in the heart’ baby she thought was a bout of constipation.
Mary, of Paxton Street, Accrington, had no idea she was pregnant until she entered labour two months prematurely and delivered little Benjamin, born with four heart defects known as ‘DiGeorge Syndrome’.
She had already endured one traumatic labour with her first son Joshua two years before, when she required an emergency caesarian section and vowed never to go through childbirth again.
To Mary, her younger son who is awaiting his fourth birthday, but still fits into a two-year-old’s clothes, will forever be known as ‘my surprise baby’. She explained: "My doctor told me I was ill and that I was constipated. The painkillers stopped Benjamin from moving and I only had a small bump. A few months before I had even given Joshua’s baby clothes away."
Mary, 22, recalled: "It was 4am in the morning and I just woke up with really bad stomach pains and the first I knew about it I was in labour with him. They took him into the premature baby unit and they decided he was two months early. They did a scan and found out he had four defects of the heart. I found out the day after he was born."
She added: "I had a troubled first pregnancy. I was in labour for 28 hours and I had an emergency caesarian. When I was in labour with Joshua I said please don't let it happen again, but it was worth it to get Benjamin."
From an early age it became clear that Benjamin would never be a stranger to hospitals and he was rushedback with measles just a week after he was discharged.
Mary said: "Somebody can cough and he could end up in hospital. He had to have a small plastic tube between his arteries because he was not getting enough oxygen.
"He was 5lb 5oz when born but he lost quite a lot of weight. All the calories went on his heart and not on his growing and he had to be on special weight gaining milk."
