Mia's Story: Prenatal Infection Prevention Month

For prenatal infection prevention month we’re bringing you the story of Mia.

It was a special day when mum, Selina and dad, Dave brought home their baby girl Mia from the hospital. But then Mia started to become unwell.

“Her first night at home Mia wasn’t feeling well. She was making this sort of grunting noise,” explains Selina. “We immediately phoned the midwife who said to take her to the doctors right away and get her checked.” Suddenly, Mia began to have a seizure and after calling 999, paramedics arrived within a few minutes.

“It was all so terrifying” Selina notes. “We were rushed to QA Hospital and taken to CAU, where a nurse checked Mia over. There were so many doctors and nurses around her, we knew it was bad.” Although the medical staff worked hard to assess her daughter’s condition, Selina admits she was panicking. “I kept asking the doctor if she would be ok, but the doctor told me that it was too early to say. Words no new parents want to hear!”

After a few hours, Mia’s parents had a diagnosis. Their daughter had Strep B Meningitis.

“I had never even heard of Strep B Meningitis before, so this was all so new and daunting to me,” Selina says. “I worried that maybe I could have prevented this if I had known what the symptoms were." Selina and Dave spent the next 48 hours waiting to see if little Mia would survive. Slowly, she got better and four weeks later she was finally allowed by doctors to go home.

According to mum, Mia, now six-years-old, is thriving! She has no memory of her weeks at the hospital.

Selina doesn’t want any parents to go through what she and her husband did. "It’s important to educate yourself around the risks of a prenatal infection! We are lucky; as this could have been a different story for Mia!”