Oti Mabuse revealed her now 10-week-old baby girl spent six weeks in critical condition following her premature birth.
The former Strictly Come Dancing professional, who announced the arrival of her baby girl on Christmas Day, nine weeks after the birth, opened up about her firstborn with Giovanna Fletcher on her podcast, Happy Mum, Happy Baby. During the conversation, Oti discussed the anguish she and her husband Marius went through when they welcomed their newborn.
"She was premature she came really really early, unexpectedly premature, which was a big shock," Oti confessed of her daughter, who was due to arrive just two weeks before her mother's stint on Dancing on Ice began.
"But going through all that emotional trauma that you go through when you have a premature baby and then six weeks being in hospital with the little one and finally coming out and having her home with friends, with family over Christmas was really really nice."
© InstagramShe continued: "She was in critical condition for the first six weeks and me and Marius just wanted to be there mentally physically emotionally. My mum as well she dropped everything and flew directly to England just to be with us and we were just there for her.
"Things don't always go to plan when you have a premature baby, you give birth, you hug and then the baby gets taken away and then the next time you see them they're in a box and they're wired rup, and they're not well or they're under blue light and it gets traumatic."
© InstagramThe dancer, 33, suffered several ailments during her pregnancy including, groin pain and gestational diabetes. Oti continued to explain that as well as contracting jaundice, her little girl picked up infections from Oti's undiagnosed sepsis which she had during her pregnancy, and didn't hold her daughter for a week due to her critical condition.
"I think we didn't hold her for about a week. She was in an incubator with wires, with jaundice so she was under blue light and she had infections because it turns out I had sepsis.
© Instagram"The bacteria around your womb when your water breaks, the bacteria attack the baby."
Despite the difficulties she and her little bundle faced after her arrival, Oti gushed about her 16-hour labour telling Giovanna: "The moment when I started to push it felt so empowering, I felt like a woman for the first time. I felt like I was giving birth to myself as well to become this new woman.
© Instagram"When I saw her for the first time I was shocked that I had done it. And she was the most beautiful human being I had ever seen in my life, gorgeous!
"It was serene it was happy it was everything that I wanted. The last bit was not what I had wanted, when you see your child for two minutes before they are taken away by a group of 10 midwives and doctors, and that's when things start to change and that's when things start to hit you."
As for trying to get pregnant, Oti confessed felt disheartened as it took her and Marius three months before they fell pregnant. "I had the feeling my body had failed me," she confessed. "It becomes all you can focus on," she added.
