Olivia Bowen fans has described her as a ‘super woman’ as she shared the traumatic birth of her second child on the latest episode of her ITV2 reality show on Sunday.
The Love Island stars, who are already parents to their three-year-old son Abel, announced they had welcomed a baby girl named Siena Grace in August.
However, during their new show Olivia and Alex: Parenthood, Olivia opened up about nearly dying after haemorrhaging while having a C-section.
The star had originally planned to have a home birth and after over ’10 hours’ felt that something was wrong and got rushed to A&E in an ambulance.
Olivia revealed that her ‘bladder had fallen down into my cervix and was obstructing the exit for the baby’ meaning she had to have a c-section.
She said: ‘I was really scared, its a surgery and its a big thing and its not the easy was out. She came out crying which was incredible and beautiful and I had her on my face and I started to feel dizzy.
Olivia Bowen fans has described her as a ‘super woman’ as she gave an insight into the traumatic birth of her second child on the latest episode of her ITV2 reality show on Sunday
During their new show Olivia and Alex: Parenthood, Olivia opened up about nearly dying after haemorrhaging while having a C-section
Detailing how she lost a ‘really scary’ amount of blood, Olivia continued: ‘The nurse started calling out how much blood I was loosing and all I could hear was 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 and it was going up and up quickly and the fear sunk in really quickly, it was really scary.’
Breaking down in tears, she said: ‘They started yelling, major haemorrhage across all the surgery room and that’s all I remember.
‘There was doctors in and out and no one was telling me what was going on. I felt so sick and dizzy and Alex said the blood just drained from me.
‘I remember thinking don’t close your eyes because I thought I’d pass out or even worse. It was very close. I ended up losing 2.8 litres of blood and you only have 4.5 litres so the blood loss… to feel that you are that close to losing your life, was very very scary.’
Olivia continued by thanking the NHS for ‘saving her life’ and explained that she ‘feels so lucky’ to be alive.
She said: ‘The doctors were absolutely incredible. The NHS were amazing, they saved my life.
‘I was full of medication and I don’t know where I was but I wanted this natural birth and then being medicated and going through that to nearly losing my life it just made me not give a shit what happened because I’m here and she is here. I feel so lucky.
‘The recovery is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I have no strength, can’t drive for six weeks. The amount of blood I lost I haven’t got the energy to recover, the doctors said it will be three months until I feel like myself again.’
The Love Island stars, who are already parents to their three-year-old son Abel, announced they had welcomed a baby girl named Siena Grace in August
The star had originally planned to have a home birth and after over ’10 hours’ felt that something was wrong and got rushed to A&E in an ambulance
Olivia revealed that her ‘bladder had fallen down into my cervix and was obstructing the exit for the baby’ meaning she had to have a c-section
Elsewhere in the show, while speaking to husband Alex, Olivia revealed that she had ‘processed’ the birth while Alex has become ‘traumatised’.
She said: ‘I feel like I’ve processed it, we got through 20 hours of labour at home, I think you were more traumatised.’
Alex replied: ‘Yeah its the worse thing I’ve ever seen and never want to go through it again.’
Olivia added: ‘I feel the most womanly I’ve ever felt, I had a different mind set and I put that down to the home birth because of preparing for that it changed the game for me.’
Following the intense scenes, fans took to Instagram to describe ‘brave’ Olivia as a ‘super woman’ as they admitted they struggled to watch the scenes without crying.
They wrote: ‘Such a brave person, made me real emotional; Watched it and cried my eyes out! Such a beautiful family;
‘You’re such a brave woman. Watching this episode was so emotional. Its lovely to see you all so happy as a family of 4. Your positivity is unbelievable. Super woman;
‘I actually got teary watching Olivia in labour, as I felt her pain….a pain you never forget. @oliviadbowen you are the most amazing mum & one strong woman’.
Sharing her birth news on Instagram in August, Olivia wrote: ‘I can’t even find the words other than to say our beautiful girl Siena Grace is here, and we are all bursting with love.
‘It wasn’t an easy ride but every second worth it a thousand times over. I love my babies.’
Both Olivia’s pregnancy and difficult birthing experience are covered in the couple’s ITV2 reality series.
Detailing how she lost a ‘really scary’ amount of blood, Olivia said: ‘They started yelling, major haemorrhage across all the surgery room and that’s all I remember’
Olivia continued by thanking the NHS for ‘saving her life’ and explained that she ‘feels so lucky’ to be alive
Following the intense scenes, fans took to Instagram to describe ‘brave’ Olivia as a ‘super woman’ as they admitted they struggled to watch the scenes without crying
The couple revealed in March that they had been expecting twins, but sadly lost one of their babies eight weeks into the pregnancy.
Olivia broke down in tears on Loose Women as she recalled her excitement at finding out they were having twins just before Christmas, when they attended an early six week scan.
She said: ‘We had that two week period we were looking at cars, looking at car seats, planning bedrooms… and something happened called vanishing twin syndrome.’
She explained: ‘One of the babies just basically didn’t have a heartbeat but I’d had no symptoms, no pain, no bleeding to tell me that was what we were walking into. We were floored, we were expecting to have these two little babies.’
Vanishing twin syndrome occurs when one twin passes away in the womb and ‘vanishes’ and studies suggest happens in roughly 36 per cent of twin pregnancies.
Olivia heartbreakingly revealed that ‘the one beautiful part of it’ is that the babies do ‘absorb back into your body’ and that’s what the couple have been ‘holding onto’.
The reality star continued: ‘We were floored but talking about it helps, every little part is becoming easier by speaking to other women.
‘I haven’t seen many men talk about it and we want to change that perception of not being able to talk about miscarriage openly.
‘The baby had completely absorbed into my body at 14 weeks, just completely gone which is tremendously sad knowing they’re still in there.
‘I am so lucky to have experienced that moment of possibly having twins, it’s something that not everyone gets to feel so even having those two little babies at that time.’
The couple revealed in March that they had been expecting twins, but sadly lost one of their babies eight weeks into the pregnancy
Alex then emotionally chimed in with: ‘I built this scenario up in my mind, I was thinking of the future.
‘I thought it was 100% happening and I had come to terms with it. I never really had a big family, I’m an only child and have no contact with my dad so it was an amazing thing for me.’
Olivia and Alex met on season two of the popular ITV dating show in 2016, finishing as runners up, and have become one of the show’s biggest success stories.
Olivia announced they were expecting baby number two in February with a heartwarming video of the pregnancy so far and wrote in the caption: ‘A moment, a love – baby no2 – we’re waiting for you.’
