'I nearly died of sepsis after giving birth - now I’m holding the miracle baby I never thought I’d have'

Emily Siddle sailed through her first pregnancy. She felt great after giving birth to baby Elsie in 2020, with her postpartum period hampered only by two bouts of mastitis, both quickly treated with antibiotics. Emily, 34, fell pregnant again three years later and gave birth to Bella in October 2023, who she hoped would be the middle child of three. “It all went downhill from there,” says Emily, from Elgin, Scotland. Weeks after giving birth, she began struggling to feed from one breast, which had become hot and lumpy. Having experienced mastitis before, Emily says she immediately recognised the symptoms and sought medical help. She was dismayed, she says, when a nurse practitioner at her GP surgery advised her to wait 24 to 48 hours to see whether her symptoms worsened before prescribing antibiotics. Emily, who works as a social media marketer and wedding content creator, followed the advice and waited 24 hours. But she believes the delay proved significant: by the time she was able to start taking the medication, her temperature had soared to 40C and she sought emergency help. She was prescribed further medication, but the infection failed to clear. When a friend visiting from Liverpool came to see her, he found her collapsed on the sitting-room floor. “It was a Sunday morning, and I don’t know how I did it. I don’t remember bringing the baby downstairs, but somehow I put her in the Moses basket and I collapsed. He found me and said I needed to get to hospital,” says Emily. “I was rushed into Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin and soon put on drips for my mastitis. No one mentioned a breast abscess.” By this point, she says, she was feverish and delirious and remembers little of what happened. Her friend was told that Bella should feed from the infected breast to help clear the infection. On a drip and in severe pain, Emily refused, while her husband, Alex, suggested giving newborn Bella formula instead. “We weren't ever told what my temperature was. When I tried to feed Bella yellow gunk came out and I was still told to feed after I spoke to nurses,” says Emily. “I was broken. I was in so much pain. I couldn’t even cuddle my baby. It was throbbing, like being consistently stabbed in the breast.” After she was discharged from hospital in November 2023 for what Emily thought was mastitis, it was confirmed two weeks later that she had a breast abscess, which had been drained multiple times. The abscess then grew back four times before Emily begged the GP for help in December, which resulted in surgery in January. Following the procedure, a ‘pocket’, as her surgeon described it, formed beneath the skin. “The fingers went into my breast and he popped it. The abscess had gone so far back that even the surgeon couldn't quite believe it was so big," she says. "I was so sore that I was beyond pain at that point. It was genuinely bigger than a Granny Smith apple." It was during this time at Aberdeen Breast Clinic, she says, that she discovered from her medical notes that she had suffered sepsis. “They told me, ‘Aren’t you lucky to be here?’ and I thought that was because we’d travelled a long distance to get there. I had no idea that I’d had sepsis. “They told me, ‘You’re so lucky to be alive.’ I believe it could all have been avoided had I been able to take antibiotics the minute I fell ill.” Karen Bell, unit operational manager at Dr Gray's Hospital, said: "We are sorry to hear about Ms Siddle's experience. Speaking generally, we encourage anyone with any concerns about their care or treatment to raise them with our Feedback service as soon as possible. We will then investigate, make changes if necessary, and respond in full to the complainant.” As Emily recovered from her ordeal, she and Alex began to accept that they might have to give up their hopes of having a third child. “By this point I’d had 16 rounds of antibiotics. I was two stone heavier than usual, my stomach was swollen and I was in a lot of pain,” she said. Emily had been struggling with agonising stomach pain due to endometriosis, behind the womb and at a scan in June 2024, she says the sonographer told her: “I don’t know how you’ve managed to have two children because I can’t see your ovaries. I’ve never seen so many cysts.” Emily, who posts on TikTok as emilyrosesiddle, says her gynaecologist subsequently suggested a partial hysterectomy. After seeing an advert online, she began taking a natural hormone balancer supplement called Golden Pill, from Elle-Sera. “After a year of taking it, I felt great. My weight had dropped and I no longer suffered from the swelling.” Emily says doctors had told her she would be unlikely to conceive again, so she and Alex gave up hope of having their third child and instead focused on her health. But as she waited for an appointment ahead of planned surgery and braced herself for the possibility of early menopause, she suddenly fell ill while working at a wedding. “I was filming at a wedding and I felt so unwell. At first, I thought it might be nerves because it was an important project, but, the following day on our own wedding anniversary, I took a test,” says Emily. “It didn’t even take the full three minutes to show up that I was two weeks pregnant. To this day, I still don’t know how it happened. The only thing that had changed in my routine was taking the Golden Pill, and I’m still taking it now.” Baby James was born earlier this year. Named after Emily’s brother, his arrival meant the couple unexpectedly had the third child they had dreamed of. Though exhausted, Emily and Alex say they are over the moon that he arrived safe and sound. “We made peace with having just two children. But after James was born, I couldn’t imagine life as a family of four. He just completed the family. The girls are completely besotted,” says Emily. “He is named James Alexander – James after my brother, one of the most amazing men you’ll ever meet, and Alexander after my husband, who is one of the strongest people you’ll ever meet, and my grandad - gaga - the best father figure I could have ever had.