Llantrisant woman wakes from coma to find her baby has been born

A woman who fell into a coma due to severe morning sickness has described waking up to find her baby had been born.

Atlanta McIntyre, 29, from Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, suffered excessive nausea and vomiting during her pregnancy. Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG).

During a bout of vomiting, Ms McIntyre choked and doctors had to put her into a coma.

When she came to her senses, she found that her daughter had been delivered by caesarean section.

“I was in complete shock and disbelief,” Ms McIntyre said.

“I remember telling all the nurses and my partner that they had lied to me about having her.”

Discomfort during pregnancy, often called morning sickness, is very common, with eight out of 10 pregnant women experiencing symptoms.

But some pregnant women experience extreme vomiting and nausea, called HG, which often requires hospitalization.

According to NHS figures, around 1 to 3 in 100 pregnant women have HG.

“My illness started very early – from the moment I knew I was pregnant, even before I took the test,” Ms McIntyre said.

“Around six weeks or so, the morning sickness really started. Every morning, I was sick. Everything I ate, I was sick.”

Ms McIntyre's condition became so severe that she eventually required repeated hospitalizations due to dehydration.

“I can't suppress anything. I can't suppress drugs or anything like that.

“People kept telling me 'it gets better after the first trimester', so after 12 weeks, it got better too.

“I’m about 14 weeks and things are still weird and bad enough that I can’t control my fluids.

“That's when they diagnosed me with HG.

Ms McIntyre added: “I was going back and forth to the hospital every week and especially in the later stages of my pregnancy I was going to the hospital every day.”

In February 2024, during her 29th week of pregnancy, Ms McIntyre began to become ill while eating.

“I basically choked on (the vomit) and it went straight into my lungs,” Ms McIntyre said.

Ms McIntyre became so ill that doctors at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil had to put her into a coma on February 19.

“I was in there for a good 20 hours before they did the C-section,” she said.

“Her (baby's) heart rate dropped dramatically and they said to my partner: 'It's time – we have to get her out now or she's not going to survive'.”

Ms McIntyre's daughter Poppy was born prematurely on February 20 at 29 weeks, weighing 3lb (1.4kg).

The baby was transferred to Singleton Hospital in Swansea for care.

When Ms McIntyre awoke from her coma three days later, she described feeling scared.

Ms McIntyre said: “It was horrible – not knowing if (Bobby) was okay.”

“She was being intubated and ventilated, and she was in a completely different hospital than I was.”

Ms McIntyre's partner visited her during the day and then headed to Singleton in the evening to spend time with their daughter.

About ten days after emerging from the coma, Ms McIntyre met her daughter for the first time.

Ms McIntyre said: “It was really scary for us but it was great to see her and see the progress she had made in the few days I was gone.”

Now, Poppy is 10 months old, living at home and doing well.

• Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is different from morning sickness, which affects about 80% of pregnant women
• Morning sickness causes nausea and vomiting that usually improves by the 16th or 20th week of pregnancy
• In contrast, women with HG vomit more than 50 times a day and experience persistent severe nausea that significantly interferes with their daily lives
• Complications of HG may include excessive vomiting leading to severe vitamin deficiencies, significant weight loss, dehydration and malnutrition, putting the health of mother and baby at risk

Ms McIntyre hopes that by speaking about her experience with HG, she can encourage other pregnant women experiencing the condition to seek help.

“I would say this to other women – it's not normal to feel like this,” she said.

“To not be pushed aside and told it was just morning sickness… I was like a zombie.

“I was dizzy, drowsy, couldn’t hold my head up, had constant headaches and was constantly dehydrated.

“I can't control fluids. Anything I smell gets me excited. I can't eat greasy food or anything like that. I can only eat bland food – rice, bread, ginger nut biscuits. That's when things change It got really bad,” when I couldn’t even hold it together.

“I definitely lost a lot of weight during my pregnancy. The fact that she was born at three pounds surprised me.”