Careful what you wish for...
Five months into her pregnancy, doctors ordered bed rest for the 29-year-old Brit -- on a mattress tilted upside down to stop her baby from falling out. For three months.
In order to reduce the pressure on the cervix (the baby was positioned just an inch from the top of the cervix), and presumably let gravity do its thing, Kelly was made to lie in a hospital bed tilted at 45 degrees. She had to stay in bed 24 hours a day, only getting up to use the bathroom.
"It made me feel sick at first, and I had a massive 'head rush'. But after a couple of days my body adjusted and I got used to it," admitted Kelly who later gave birth to Amelia. "I propped myself up with pillows and the barrier round the bed kept me from falling out. I had to roll onto my side to eat, but I'd always have a dead arm by the end of the meal."
Ever since she gave birth to her son Joshua, now four, Kelly has suffered from a weak cervix. After suffering two miscarriages (at 19 and 23 weeks), she spent ten weeks during her latest pregnancy at University Hospital in Coventry under the care of a leading expert in recurrent miscarriages, Professor Siobhan Quenby.
In the end Amelia arrived six weeks early by emergency Cesarean. Weighing just 4lbs 15oz, she spent two weeks in an incubator before going home.
"I'm thrilled to have Amelia," said Kelly, a former gynaecology nurse. "But there will always be a place in my heart for the babies I never knew."
Already this yummy is fantasizing about all those bucket-list reads on my Kobo. But after a few days, I'm sure the novelty would have worn off and I'd be itching to get out and about. Could you cope with being confined to bed like this mom?
Image from Sam Furlong/SWNS.com
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