A brave mum almost died after losing a staggering TEN pints of blood when she suffered a massive haemorrhage while giving birth to her son.
Dawn Capell, 38, was rushed to theatre with a life-threatening bleed moments after giving birth to her fourth child Cassius via caesarean section on January 25.
Incredibly, she lost 10 pints of blood (5.6 litres) – the ENTIRE amount most women have in their body – and even said her goodbyes to her family as she lay close to death.
Medics at John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford battled to save her life and gave Dawn an emergency blood transfusion and eventually managed to stem the bleeding.
Now Dawn wants to warn other expectant mothers of the dangers of the condition placenta accreta – which is more common in women who give birth by C-section.
It is the same medical problem that Kim Kardashian revealed to having earlier this year after giving birth to her daughter, North, with rapper husband Kanye West.
She says: “It’s very scary and lonely, sometimes mothers die with this condition.
“I didn’t know if I would ever get to hold my baby or not. I was hooked up to a machines and monitors as I had been diagnosed with placenta accreta earlier in the pregnancy.
“Things didn’t progress well so it was decided they would take me to theatre to deliver with forceps.
“Things were happening around me, like it was happening to someone else.I was 36 weeks pregnant at the time.
“Luckily I had an amazing partner and an anaesthetist I trusted.
“After three pushes I delivered a perfect little man.
“Then I remember that I was haemorrhaging. Blood was going up really quickly. I had ten units put up.
“I knew that I was dying. I said ‘goodbye’ to my partner and my new baby, unsure if I would see them again.”
“I was so scared. I woke up hours later with no uterus, but I was alive.”
Dawn had been diagnosed with placenta accreta 28 weeks into the pregnancy following monitoring by specialists at the high risk unit at the hospital.
The condition occurs when all or part of the placenta attaches abnormally to the myometrium – the muscular layer of the uterine wall.
The placenta attaches too deeply and then tears the uterus when the baby is born.
The incidence of placenta accreta is increasing and is most common in women who have had caesarean section deliveries before – Dawn had previously had two.
The retail assistant from Banbury, Oxon., has one other child, Rocco, two, with her partner Pete Lawrence, 46, who works as a motor sport engineer.
But Dawn also has two older children from a past relationship, Ellie-Hannah, 13, and Matilda, four, who were both delivered by a caesarean section.
She added: “I want to be able to promote awareness of this condition and let women who have been through it, but may be traumatised, know they are not alone.
“This condition tainted the last months of my pregnancy as the whole concern was getting through the birth.
“I hope by sharing my experience I will be able to promote awareness of this condition.
“I want to hopefully show someone on the other side, I’m doing OK after what was a scary and life-changing experience.”
The increase in placenta accreta is in parallel with the increase in C-section deliveries over recent years.
Figures show incidence was one in 533 pregnancies between 1982 and 2002, contrasting with one in 4,027 in the 1970s and one in 2,510 pregnancies in the 1980s.
