Charlotte's mail:
I know I haven’t spoken much about what happened on the night my baby daughter Mira died as it's been too painful for me to keep reliving it. But now we have a few answers, I'm breaking my silence in the hope that this post may help to raise awareness.
After Mira was born, I developed tonsilitis and was kept in hospital for 4 days under observation and so they could give me antibiotics. There were a few delays as the maternity ward was so busy, and I ended up getting worse rather than better. On the day I left hospital, I developed my first ever cold sore. I asked the midwife who was looking after me if there was any treatment or if it was dangerous. She told me it was just because I was rundown after the birth and lack of sleep from being in a ward full of screaming babies (not Mira, of course - she was always so good and never cried ;-) ). There wasn't any treatment as it was a viral infection and it would just go away on its own. It did - it disappeared after a day - almost as quickly as it had come, and I didn't think anything more about it until after Mira died and it was suggested as a possible cause.
Anyway, Mira seemed perfectly healthy when she was born and a very placid, peaceful, content baby. She hardly ever cried, but we just thought we were lucky and that she was laid back, chilled out half-Egyptian baby! We settled her in well at home, and were loving every minute of being a new little family of three. Even up until the day before she died, we were unaware that there was anything even slightly wrong with her. She wasn't feeding very well, but we were told this was quite normal in newborns and that she'd settle into a pattern before too long and that it was nothing to worry about.
She became ill very suddenly, and although she had been seen by two doctors and a midwife on the day she died, nobody realised she was actually a very sick little girl. Her symptoms were so non-specific - poor feeding, restlessness, a slightly sticky eye - conditions seen in thousands of newborn babies and more often than not absolutely no cause for concern. What we didn’t know was that possibly even before birth, an infection was creeping its way through all of her internal organs and only became apparent when it was about to totally overwhelm her tiny body.
Five weeks later, we've just had the results from Mira's post mortem - the cause of death was disseminated Herpes Simplex Virus 1, contracted during or at the time of birth, with staphylococcus aureus septicemia as the secondary cause of death. What this means in plain English is that she died from the common cold sore virus that is present in 85% of adults. Only 6 babies a year die from this here in the UK, it's so so rare it's almost unheard of.
My GP told me yesterday that because it was my first ever cold sore, I wouldn't have had any antibodies in my blood to pass onto Mira before the birth and that was why she wasn't protected and so vulnerable. They said it was so rare for me to be developing my first ever cold sore at my age, which is why the midwives wouldn't have thought it was any risk at all to my baby.
So, sorry for such a long mail, but I just wanted to pass this information on. We had never heard anything about this before - and nor had any of the doctors or health professionals who saw Mira before she died.
I want people to know about this danger - I know it won't bring Mira back, but I wish I'd been aware of the devastating consequences of cold sores.
Please pass this information on to anyone you know who might benefit from being aware of this tragedy.
Charlotte is still not sleeping very well, which is understandable. She's a very strong and brave woman that has gone through a lot lately. I'd like to thank her so so so much. I never had a cold soar and didn't know it was so dangerous. Thank you Charlotte.
I (and I'm sure many of you) wish her all the best this year and hope she will recover and heal. Bless you Charlotte!
*Big Big HUG*
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