A Perth baby who needed to be resuscitated at birth and was given blood transfusions to stay alive is getting ready to celebrate her first birthday.
Little Ailsa Afrin suffered a rare complication before she was born and would not have survived without medical intervention.
At 34 weeks pregnant, mum Eilidh Afrin attended Perth Royal Infirmary as she hadn’t felt the baby kick as often as normal.
The 30-year-old was immediately rushed to Ninewells Hospital to deliver Ailsa via
emergency section.
Ailsa received two blood transfusions and it was later determined that she had
suffered a severe foetal-maternal haemorrhage – a rare complication where the baby
loses blood via the placenta into the mother’s bloodstream.
It was a terrifying experience for the first-time mum.
“When Ailsa was born, she had to be resuscitated,” said Eilidh.
“She was pale and floppy, so she was given a blood transfusion.”
‘She would not have survived’
Speaking to The Courier, Eilidh said the early interventions saved her daughter’s life.
Before she attended PRI and then Ninewells, she hadn’t thought the situation was overly serious.
“I was told up until that point it had been a textbook pregnancy,” said the mum.
“So there was no sign that there was anything wrong until I went in with reduced movement.”
“We didn’t know why she was stopping moving until she came out and they did tests on her later.
“At the time, they were just responding to the situation in front of them – that she needed resuscitated and she needed a blood transfusion.
“It was all to do with this event we had, foetal-maternal haemorrhage, and the severity of her blood loss.
“When she was born she needed [a blood transfusion] straight away, but she was still struggling so they took her to NICU and they gave her a second blood transfusion.
“That stabilised her and set the path for her recovery – but she would not have survived without the blood transfusion.”
‘It’s a positive story’
Thankfully, mother and daughter were both fine.
“We were discharged with a healthy baby,” said Eilidh.
“We’ve just had some additional check-ins, they’re going to follow her development for the first one or two years of her life.
“It is a positive story – the start was grim and really frightening, and was shocking for us as well because I didn’t think anything was wrong. But it was.”
The mum is sharing her story for Blood Donor Week on the run up to World Blood Donor Day on June 14.
It falls just four days before Ailsa turns one.
“I can’t believe the timing,” said Eilidh.
“It’s certainly not a day we’ll ever forget now because we’re just so so grateful.”
The Courier is running a Be Our Blood campaign, encouraging more people to register here and donate.
Eilidh wanted to thank everyone involved in her daughter’s care, from the first midwife she spoke to at PRI to everyone Ninewells.
“We’re so appreciative to all the medical staff involved and then especially to that stranger in our local community who donated the life-saving blood,” said Eilidh.
“If they hadn’t done that then they [the medical staff] wouldn’t have been able to do what they needed to.”
Conversation