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Real life story<br />
I was 15 years old when I gave birth to my beautiful<br />
daughter Sam in 1989. I found out when I was 4<br />
months pregnant. I told my family when I was 5<br />
months pregnant. My mum was polite when I told her<br />
but I could see was not happy, she was embarrassed<br />
and expressed that this is not how she had imagined life<br />
for me to be. My dad on the other hand was unhappy<br />
and he was not afraid to tell me exactly how much! Our<br />
father daughter relationship broke down from that<br />
point. My sister was the only one who was happy for<br />
me, she was jumping with excitement when I told her I<br />
was pregnant, although this was<br />
down to immaturity as she was only<br />
8 but it still felt good that someone<br />
was happy. I had mixed feelings<br />
and was still at school.<br />
My mum showed she cared by<br />
encouraging me to eat healthy.<br />
I absolutely hated going to the antenatal appointments.<br />
“It was me and my<br />
little girl against the<br />
world.”<br />
I would look at couples in the waiting room looking<br />
excited and giggling away together, then there was me<br />
on my own. I felt lonely and isolated. The fact that I<br />
was only 15 and that I looked young anyway was<br />
another factor, people would look, stare and tut.<br />
I was so petit before falling pregnant then I put on so<br />
much weight, gained so many stretch marks and they<br />
would bleed. I started to feel so low, more than I did<br />
before.<br />
There was not any support around for expectant young<br />
parents back then. I was advised to leave school for<br />
health and safety reasons, this was<br />
upsetting as it meant I did not get to<br />
see my friends much.<br />
I finally went into labour I had never<br />
felt so scared. I was so young and<br />
not knowing what to expect.<br />
Unfortunately there were<br />
complications with the labour. I was in labour for 23<br />
hours and was exhausted I was in a bad<br />
way. Both mine and my baby‘s heartbeat<br />
started to deteriorate.<br />
After having a long drawn out labour I<br />
finally gave birth to my beautiful daughter.<br />
However things were not straight forward,<br />
cord was wrapped around my daughter‘s<br />
neck, her head was out but the shoulders<br />
were stuck. The midwife panicked and<br />
pulled my daughter out as she could not<br />
breathe she was being strangled by the<br />
umbilical cord.<br />
Finally my daughter was born she was<br />
beautiful perfect in each and every way. I<br />
was in hospital for 5 days before being<br />
allowed home. The midwives were<br />
fabulous, kind and helpful.<br />
As time went on I noticed something was<br />
not right so after tests and examinations on<br />
my daughter the results showed as her<br />
having ‗erbs palsey‘ this was all due to the<br />
force of the midwife pulling my daughter<br />
out during labour. I was upset and<br />
shocked. I was worried how this may<br />
affect her in the future.<br />
I took my daughter for intense<br />
physiotherapy sessions. This was a tough<br />
and testing time but we got through it. The<br />
physiotherapy was great.<br />
After being home for a few weeks I started