When Hilary from Shropshire entered her thirteenth hour of labour, doctors decided to perform a Caesarean section on the 41-year-old, but unfortunately Hilary suffered an amniotic fluid embolism during the procedure which meant that for eleven minutes Hilary technically 'died'.
The embolism often results in seizures, coma, or as in Hilary's case, cardiac arrest which meant medical professionals performed CPR on her for 11 minutes before injecting her heart with adrenaline.
Hilary woke up four days after suffering the embolism and was informed she was the mum of a little boy named Felix, who she admits she had no memory of carrying.
Recalling the traumatic time, Hilary said: "When I woke up, my friends and family would talk to me about Felix, but I had no idea what they were on about."
Admitting that the previous nine months and harrowing delivery were no longer part of her memory, Hilary struggled and said: "I was trying to make sense out of everything. I didn’t know where I was or what had happened. I had no idea that I’d ever been pregnant or just had a baby."
Acknowledging that it took time to bond with baby Felix as a result of the embolism and subsequent cardiac arrest, Hilary admitted: "When I met him when he was six days old, I didn’t really feel like he was mine. I wasn’t interested in holding him, and I was happy for my mum to give him cuddles instead of me."
It wasn't until Hilary began nursing Felix that she felt a connection with her little boy, explaining: "It wasn’t until I was well enough to go back to the maternity ward and could breastfeed Felix that I really started to bond with him."
Despite only being given a 30 per cent chance of survival, the mum, who works as a translator, has moved on from the incident, saying: "Now, Felix and I have a wonderful relationship, and the whole ordeal almost feels like a dream."
