Oti Mabuse has opened up for the first time following her daughter’s “traumatic birth.”
The Strictly Come Dancing star announced the arrival of her baby daughter at Christmas time but has now explained that she gave birth in Autumn.
The 33-year-old was diagnosed with sepsis during the birth and her daughter had infections as a result, resulting in a six-week stay in the NICU.
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Speaking on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast, Oti confessed: “She was very premature, she came really, really early – unexpected premature which was a big, big shock,”
“Going through that emotional trauma that you go through when you have a premature baby, and then being in hospital with the little one for six weeks and then finally coming out and having her home with friends and family over Christmas was really nice.”
“When I saw her for the first time, shocked that I had done it, and she was the most beautiful human being I had ever seen in my life – gorgeous,” she said.
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“In that moment when you’re so happy and feeling elated and it took 16 hours, and then they get taken away.”
“Because now, born really tiny, really small, they had to check for infections, if her lungs are good enough, if she can eat on her own, if all her organs have developed and she’s well enough,” she added.
“I think we didn’t hold her for about a week, because she was still in an incubator with wires, with jaundice so she was under blue light.”
“She had infections because it turned out I had sepsis and it’s something that was missed or not tested for.”
“The NHS, midwives, doctors and consultants were amazing,” she added.
“To be in hospital, and to find this new world the neonatal world, which as a mum you don’t ever think you’re going to end up in, until you’re in it -my emotions were so high because it’s Christmas time.”
“It’s not how you thought it would go. I was taken down in a wheelchair, you can’t get up. The first thing that you want to do is hold the baby, but you can’t, you have to just look at them.”
“And I remember crying because I couldn’t get the wheelchair close enough to her bed and that was traumatising and emotionally very exhausting.”
