Maternal Instinct Saves Two-Week-Old Ties from Sepsis

Ties is two weeks old when Anne (26) suddenly has an uneasy feeling. She decides not to put him to bed that night, but to keep him with her.

Rough start

‘Ties’ delivery was a bit difficult. At least, at first everything seemed to go smoothly and smoothly, but after two hours of pushing, little happened and I became discouraged. Ties turned out to be lying with his face to the side, so he could not easily pass through the birth canal. I finally got a cut.

Read also: Was that really necessary? Everything about ‘the cut’ during childbirth

Once home, things went well with Ties. He drank well and asked for a bottle every three hours. He was a sweet, quiet baby with a great appetite. I also felt pretty good, despite the intense delivery.

Restless feeling

Until, sixteen days after he was born, I suddenly felt very restless and emotional. Without being able to put my finger on why that was. It must be the hormones, I thought. After all, I had only just given birth, and there were often tears just like that.

I decided to go for a long walk with Ties for the first time that day, I felt physically good enough for it and being outside would definitely make me feel better. Still, that uneasy feeling didn’t go away.

At seven o’clock in the evening I gave Ties a bottle and put him on his changing mat for a clean diaper. Something is wrong, I thought. But I didn’t know why I thought that. Ties looked good, he was breathing normally and had a normal complexion. But my gut told me something wasn’t right.

Read also: Does it exist or not? All about the maternal instinct

Something not right

My husband Rik was working in the garden at the time, so I tapped on the window and motioned for him to come up. Rik also thought that Ties looked fine. He asked if Ties had drunk his last bottle properly, and I agreed. “I just feel it, something isn’t right,” I said.

I decided not to put Ties to bed that night, but to take him downstairs and keep him with me. I thought it would be better if he slept on top of me for the first part of the night, so I sat on the couch with him and turned on the TV softly. While watching TV I dozed off myself, and at a little before twelve o’clock I woke up with a start. Rick had already gone to sleep.

Ring the bell

Usually Ties would have reported for milk at exactly eleven o’clock, but he just slept through. I felt his little neck and his forehead: it seemed as if he had a fever. I was in doubt: should I wake him up for a bottle or not? I decided to do it anyway and immediately took his temperature. I remembered well that maternity care had told me that a baby under three months should not have a fever. And if it was, I had to ring the bell.

Read also: The best thermometer for your baby: which one to choose?

39.2! I was shocked, but at the same time I immediately thought: instead of ‘I have a strange feeling’ I could now indicate that my two-week-old son had a fever. Without hesitation I called the GP and woke up my husband. We were allowed to come right away. In the meantime, Ties could hardly be awakened, and when he was awake, he quickly dozed off again.

Bad sign

Once he arrived at the GP post, the doctor saw nothing abnormal about Ties: his skin color was still normal and he was breathing well. “He doesn’t look sick,” the doctor said. But she was on the safe side and put on a urine bag. Ties soon peed: cloudy, hard yellow pee.

The pediatrician did not hesitate for a moment and said that an IV had to be started immediately. They didn’t yet know what was wrong with Ties, but the cloudy urine was a bad sign. The injection of the drip did not go smoothly, Rik could hardly bear to see it. But I remained calm. Blood was also immediately taken from Ties’ heel, and that blood went to the laboratory, together with the urine.

While waiting for the results, we were taken to a room, and within two hours we had the results: Ties had sepsis (blood poisoning), caused by inflammation of the kidneys. In medical terms, also a urosepsis. In the case of sepsis, the earlier you catch it, the better your chances of survival. When I heard how ill Ties was and my feeling that something was not right was confirmed, I broke. I cried so unbelievably.

Read also: Fever in your baby, what should you watch out for?

What if?

The doctors told us that we caught it in good time, and they immediately gave Ties two different types of antibiotics: there was no time to find out which form he would respond best to. Fortunately, the antibiotics took effect quickly and Ties’ values ​​improved and his fever subsided.

Even though I should be relieved, the ‘what if’ scenario kept running through my head: what if I had just put Ties to bed and went to sleep myself? The thought that we wouldn’t have made it there in time tore me apart. My head just kept spinning. I couldn’t think of anything else. I literally felt pain in my heart.

Intuition

The next day a pediatrician came to our room. He had read our file and was impressed by my quickness and intuition. If I hadn’t been so alert, things could have turned out differently. “If a mother indicates that something is not right, that is actually enough reason to seriously examine a child,” he said.

I told him I couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if I had put him to bed. “But that didn’t happen. Your intuition saved your child’s life.” I found it difficult to accept that, I mainly focused on the scenario in which we were not there in time. What if I hadn’t called? What if I had ignored my feeling? What if we had been there too late? The panic and fear still raged through my body. I still felt anything but relieved.

Ties was eventually hospitalized for eight days and was given antibiotics while in hospital. Fortunately, we were allowed to stay with him the whole time in the hospital, and even though I was actually still a maternity woman and I had a lot of pain from the cut during childbirth, I didn’t think about it for a second. All that mattered was that Ties got better.

Read also: Cathlin’s maternal instinct saved her son: ‘I woke up rested and thought: this is not right’

Grateful

He is now doing very well. I myself struggled for a long time with the thought that I almost lost him. I sought psychological help for that, which eventually made me realize that I should be grateful. Grateful for my intuition, grateful for the doctors, and grateful that Ties has completely recovered and has recovered nothing from his sepsis. It took a while before I really realized that.

I also realized that the maternal instinct never lies. As soon as I have the feeling that something is not right, I immediately ring the bell. Good reason or not.’

Worried? Call!

In sepsis, your body reacts in a very violent way to a bacteria, virus, parasite or fungus. For example, due to a bladder, lung or meningitis or due to an inflamed wound. Sepsis is difficult to recognize, but your child may experience symptoms such as: fast or difficult breathing, fast heart rate, being very sick or weak or having severe pain in the leg or head. Are you worried? Always call the doctor. If there is sepsis, your child must be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. Source: thuisarts.nl

Text: Gabrielle Koster – Image: GettyImages