Gabriel's Backstory
In loving memory of
Gabriel Savings
02.09.2021
Gabriel was born sleeping at 29 weeks on 02.09.21 at 3.17am weighing 2lbs 12.
I had a very easy pregnancy at first, a little morning sickness but overall, a pretty good pregnancy and a lovely small bump. up until I was 29 weeks. I remember the night before, I could feel Gabriel moving a lot more than usual and just thinking how well he is doing, it isn’t until after that you then think in hindsight maybe this was a sign of distress.
It was my first day back at work, at school having been off for the summer, I got up as normal and everything was fine till around midday. I started having pains in my stomach, I called the midwive and told her, she asked if I had felt the baby moving, which I had and if I had been the toilet, which I hadn’t, the midwife said it is normal to sometimes have cramps and to go home and have a bath and see if the pains ease or go away.
I did as she asked, had a bath and hot water bottle to try and easy the pains. My partner Will was at work but as the pain wasn’t going away I called him and he was coming right away. When Will retuned I was in the bath, again, the pains were starting to get worse. I went to the toilet and I seen the tiniest drop of blood, we decided then we were going the hospital. We were both now very panicked, no overnight bag or anything, I just jumped straight back in my clothes with wet hair from the bath and we went to triage.
When we got there I was now in severe pain and in tears. The desk told me to wait in the waiting room, there were several other women sitting calmly and I was clearly in distress, crying in pain. I just didn’t understand why it was taking so long to be seen when it was clearly an emergency. Finally after around half an hour, a nurse called my name.
We went through to a scan room and the midwife scanned my stomach in search of a heart beat, there was just silence. she instead said she was going to get a doctor to come and see. We knew then that something was wrong. The doctor came in and scanned my stomach and said those dreaded words “your baby has died”. Myself and Will were both devastated and there was no possible way to change things, it was already too late.
The doctor explained that they think my placenta has ruptured. This is actually fairly common however usually the placenta ruptures partially, so the baby is often fine with monitoring. Unfortunately my placenta had completely ruptured. Usually there would be lots and lots of blood and no pain, but I had no blood and severe pain. Instead the blood was haemorrhaging in my womb. The doctors were now concerned about my own life, they explained worst case scenario’s of maybe needing a blood transfusion, maybe having to have an emergency c-section and a threat to life. I think they tell you all the worst possibilities to prepare you. They gave me Labour inducing drugs and lots of pain relief, and then we wait.
Due to the drugs I was on, I was in and out of sleep all day, we got to the hospital around 2:30pm and the whole day seems like a blur, I’m glad I had Will with me the whole time. I was attached to around 5 different things coming out of my arms so even moving around the bed was really difficult. At around 3:00am my pains started to get a lot more severe and the midwife said that Labour is happening. I was fortune that I was able to have a natural delivery and my Labour didn’t last long at all.
Gabriel was born in the amniotic sac. Once they opened that sac and got him out, the midwives then passed him to Will, as the blood from the placenta was now everywhere. We were then able to hold Gabriel together as a family and we could really see how beautiful our son was.
The midwives dressed Gabriel for us, took prints of his hands and feet and gave us a memory box full of keepsakes. These small actions make such a difference and gives you the opportunity to make memories together. We had Gabriel in the cold cot until the afternoon before he was taken out the room.
We still haven’t had any answers about why this happened to us, however there are a lot of possibilities which are being looked into so hopefully we will have some guidance soon. I still find it hard to wake up and realise that this is actually our lives, people often speak about the feeling of a ‘silent scream’ when something like this happens and it is unfortunately very true.
We are however forever grateful that we were blessed with his existence even for a short time and are very proud of our son.
I had a very easy pregnancy at first, a little morning sickness but overall, a pretty good pregnancy and a lovely small bump. up until I was 29 weeks. I remember the night before, I could feel Gabriel moving a lot more than usual and just thinking how well he is doing, it isn’t until after that you then think in hindsight maybe this was a sign of distress.
It was my first day back at work, at school having been off for the summer, I got up as normal and everything was fine till around midday. I started having pains in my stomach, I called the midwive and told her, she asked if I had felt the baby moving, which I had and if I had been the toilet, which I hadn’t, the midwife said it is normal to sometimes have cramps and to go home and have a bath and see if the pains ease or go away.
I did as she asked, had a bath and hot water bottle to try and easy the pains. My partner Will was at work but as the pain wasn’t going away I called him and he was coming right away. When Will retuned I was in the bath, again, the pains were starting to get worse. I went to the toilet and I seen the tiniest drop of blood, we decided then we were going the hospital. We were both now very panicked, no overnight bag or anything, I just jumped straight back in my clothes with wet hair from the bath and we went to triage.
When we got there I was now in severe pain and in tears. The desk told me to wait in the waiting room, there were several other women sitting calmly and I was clearly in distress, crying in pain. I just didn’t understand why it was taking so long to be seen when it was clearly an emergency. Finally after around half an hour, a nurse called my name.
We went through to a scan room and the midwife scanned my stomach in search of a heart beat, there was just silence. she instead said she was going to get a doctor to come and see. We knew then that something was wrong. The doctor came in and scanned my stomach and said those dreaded words “your baby has died”. Myself and Will were both devastated and there was no possible way to change things, it was already too late.
The doctor explained that they think my placenta has ruptured. This is actually fairly common however usually the placenta ruptures partially, so the baby is often fine with monitoring. Unfortunately my placenta had completely ruptured. Usually there would be lots and lots of blood and no pain, but I had no blood and severe pain. Instead the blood was haemorrhaging in my womb. The doctors were now concerned about my own life, they explained worst case scenario’s of maybe needing a blood transfusion, maybe having to have an emergency c-section and a threat to life. I think they tell you all the worst possibilities to prepare you. They gave me Labour inducing drugs and lots of pain relief, and then we wait.
Due to the drugs I was on, I was in and out of sleep all day, we got to the hospital around 2:30pm and the whole day seems like a blur, I’m glad I had Will with me the whole time. I was attached to around 5 different things coming out of my arms so even moving around the bed was really difficult. At around 3:00am my pains started to get a lot more severe and the midwife said that Labour is happening. I was fortune that I was able to have a natural delivery and my Labour didn’t last long at all.
Gabriel was born in the amniotic sac. Once they opened that sac and got him out, the midwives then passed him to Will, as the blood from the placenta was now everywhere. We were then able to hold Gabriel together as a family and we could really see how beautiful our son was.
The midwives dressed Gabriel for us, took prints of his hands and feet and gave us a memory box full of keepsakes. These small actions make such a difference and gives you the opportunity to make memories together. We had Gabriel in the cold cot until the afternoon before he was taken out the room.
We still haven’t had any answers about why this happened to us, however there are a lot of possibilities which are being looked into so hopefully we will have some guidance soon. I still find it hard to wake up and realise that this is actually our lives, people often speak about the feeling of a ‘silent scream’ when something like this happens and it is unfortunately very true.
We are however forever grateful that we were blessed with his existence even for a short time and are very proud of our son.
