Archie's Story, told by Laura Morris

My son, Archie, was born at 32-weeks via emergency caesarean section in December 2020.

I’d had a small bleed a few days prior and had been admitted to hospital for a night. Tests were done and they couldn’t find a reason for the bleed, so I was sent home. The day after getting sent home, I’d noticed very few kicks which was unusual. I went to the day unit to get checked out, where baby’s heart rate was checked and a scan was done. Again, no problem was found, and things seemed OK.

I went home and still felt something was wrong, that night I felt no movement at all. Feeling like a bit of a nuisance I called the day unit once again. I went back in and they put me on the monitor to check baby’s heart rate. This time things weren’t looking so good, and I was rushed for an emergency c-section.

Archie was born weighing 4lb 10ozs and, although initially breathing, he then got into difficulty and had to be resuscitated. Archie had respiratory distress syndrome and he also has sepsis, this meant he had to spend a few weeks on the neonatal until. He's now 14 months old and doing fantastically well.

I was given an appointment to see the Lead Consultant on the Maternity Unit a little after Archie's birth. I was told my placenta had been failing and breaking away. This was the reason for the small bleed I’d had, however, I didn’t have a large bleed like they would expect as it was clotting behind the placenta. The consultant told me that following my gut instinct, and knowing that his movement just wasn’t right, saved Archie’s life. He would've only survived a few more hours in the womb.

I can’t stress how important baby movement really is. I hate to think of what could've happened had I not gone back to the hospital that day.

I wanted to share Archie’s story to help others in that situation to realise just how important kicks are. If you feel something isn’t right then please get checked out. It’s always better to be safe.