It all started in November 1998. We were going away for a weekend to Hamilton Island with my 2 youngest children. Kristen who was 16 at the time and Ben who was 13. My oldest son Clinton who was 17, couldn�t come with us on this trip due to work commitments. This weekend had been planned for us to get over the miscarriage, I had back in September. As soon as the plane took off, I knew something was up. I started feeling very queasy and was wondering what the cause of this could be. The whole weekend continued like that. I just tried to put it out of my mind for this weekend. We had a fantastic time and really enjoyed ourselves.

As soon as we got back, Mike, my darling husband insisted I do a pregnancy test. We both thought that this was the cause of my nausea but we thought we should confirm it. Seeing as though I had a history of miscarriage, we wanted to be as careful as possible this time.

Well on November 17, 1998, we learned that yes, I was indeed pregnant again and that the baby was due on July 22, 1999. Things seemed to progress very nicely and I only had one small hiccough at about 9 � weeks, a small amount of bleeding, but it really was only a few spots, so no-one was concerned at that time.

I went to the hospital at 16 weeks for a planned checkup and it was decided then to do an ultra sound. Mike had to return to Canada at this time to renew his visa. So we set the appointment for the ultra sound for when he got back. This was performed at 18 weeks. We learned 2 things from this. Firstly, we discovered to our absolute joy, that we were having a baby girl. Secondly, to our absolute horror we learned that I had placenta praevia Grade iv. We were to learn in the weeks that followed what a nightmare was about to begin. I was informed at this ultra sound that the placenta could move back up and then no problem would be forthcoming OR it could stay where it was, which could cause problems of catastrophic proportions. They also suggested I come back at 28 weeks to check the position of the placenta... how prophetic was this to become!!

All seemed to go well till we reached week 21. I had a huge hemorrhage at home at 3am and Mike drove me straight to the hospital. They took me to a kind of waiting room and as soon as the midwife took a closer look, they wheeled me down to a L&D room. By this time, most of the bleeding had stopped, so they just observed me for an hour or so and then admitted me to a ward. Little did I know, that this was going to be my home for the next 7 weeks.

Bedrest is never pleasant but, I must say it was bearable due to 2 important things. Mike was unemployed at the time, because of a lack of a work visa here and this turned out to be a Godsend. Of course this meant he could visit me a lot. He even snuck in a few nights with MacDonalds for me, �cos I was starving and oh so sick of the hospital food. The other thing was the great friends I made whilst I was there. We keep in touch to this day. Every day was the same old boring routine. Except for April 7, 1999 this was my wedding day. We had set this date prior to my admission and had decided we may as well keep it. So the wonderful nurses even secretly organized a cake for us. It obviously wasn�t how I had planned anything but it did turn out a fantastic day for us.

Everything went reasonably well for a while. Not too much bleeding, just small amounts here and there until 4 am on the morning of April 30, 1999. I had been fairly uncomfortable all night and woke up to the strangest sensation. It felt like something went pop. Then there was this enormous gush. I rang for the nurse and the color went right out of her face when she came into the room and I knew then, that I was in big trouble. I told her to phone Mike back ( I had already called him just before this and asked him to come up... something didn�t feel right and he was a little reluctant to come.) When Susan, the nurse phoned him, he said he was almost out the door anyway. I had never seen so many people running around. They brought up 3 nurses and a doctor to take me down to L&D. When we got there, there were more hovering all over me, inserting iv�s, taking my blood pressure and doing all sorts of other checks. Around 6am they had me sign a form to perform an emergency c-section. There had never been an option with this anyhow, as I had already had 3 previous c-sections and the placenta praevia. The form also stated they may have to perform a hysterectomy if the bleeding could not be controlled while I was under. I was told that this was the worst case scenario and indeed very rare. By this time Mike had also arrived and I was feeling a lot more secure with him there. We were both getting very agitated though as the doctors had told me about a week before this that if I had one more big bleed they would deliver the baby. I kept asking them to deliver as by this time I was really terrified. I had seemed to lose a lot of blood. I had already had a baby born prematurely. Ben was a 30 weeker and I knew that this baby who was 28 weeks at this stage, stood a great chance of being fine.

By around 9am they had decided that the bleeding had stopped enough not to consider delivering just yet. I was most upset at this decision. They wanted to keep me in L&D for a few hours to observe me and then they were going to send me back to my room. Around 11am, contractions started. The docs had also told me that if I started contracting they would deliver. They were once again to go back on their word and they decided to give me some drugs to stop the contractions. By this time Mike was getting mad. He didn�t like to see me like this and he was starting to get concerned. He went up to the ward and spoke to a few head honcho�s. Around 3pm, a new doctor came to see me. He finally said the words I wanted to hear. He said "what are you doing at 4pm". I said, I had no idea and he told me I was going to have a baby. Now I started to get really panicky, but this man was a marvel. He gave me a confidence I didn�t know I had. He looked at the terror in my face as we were waiting outside theater and asked me what I was so afraid of. I told him, I was scared I was going to bleed to death. He told me in a firm but compassionate voice that he WAS NOT going to let the happen and luckily for us I believed him.

Maddison Amanda Elizabeth came into the world at 4.18pm on Friday the 30th April 1999. She weighed 1347 grams (2lbs 15 oz) and was 37.8cm (15 inches) long.

The c-section took over 2 hrs and Mike was getting really worried. He had already been taken in to see Maddison. He knew she was fine for the time being. He was starting to get very worried about me. When they opened me up to take her out, they discovered that my placenta had burst through my uterus and attacked my bladder. They also learned that my water had broken. Of course none of that was ever supposed to happen. They could not get the bleeding under control and had to perform an emergency hysterectomy. In total, I lost 5litres of blood. The body holds 6 litres. I was given a total of 9 bags of blood. I was intubated and taken to a different hospital with a fully equipped ICU. I woke up here feeling extremely weird to say the least. Mike brought the polaroid picture of Maddison and she looked much bigger than I was expecting and all reports at that time, had her doing great. I was extubated the next morning and finally taken back to the Mother�s hospital the following day. I had to spend another night in high dependency and the I was finally allowed back to my ward on Sunday. I was in a lot of pain, but I really needed to go home. On Tuesday the doctor came to see me and told me there was no reason I could not go home. This was great news, after 52 days in hospital. I was gonna miss my beautiful daughter and was upset that she wasn�t coming home with me. I knew she was in the best place and I knew the dedication of the doctors and nurses in all parts of that hospital were going to the very best job they could do. Without them neither Maddison nor I would be here now.