Louise Thompson On How Traumatic Birth Impacted Relationship With Son

This article includes details of a traumatic birth and may be triggering for some readers.

Former Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson has opened up about how she couldn’t “engage with” or “look at” her son in the weeks after he was born.

The birth trauma survivor appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour to discuss how she had a “very bad relationship” with her son Leo after almost dying during his birth in 2021.

The 35-year-old previously described how her son’s head became stuck in her pelvis during labour, which resulted in her needing an emergency C-section.

She was reportedly told she’d experienced a uterine rupture and her artery had been nicked.

She ended up losing almost three-quarters of the volume of blood in her body, which she was wide awake for and therefore had to witness, and has previously described how she believed she was “bleeding to death”.

Her son also stopped breathing during the birth, and had to be resuscitated and taken to intensive care.

While recovering at home, Louise then experienced a second haemorrhage which she previously said “almost did take my life”.

In a new interview with Woman’s Hour, Louise recalled her son being brought to the hospital to visit during her recovery and said: “I was in such a state of survival, in this sort of hyper-vigilant mode, that I didn’t even know he was there. I couldn’t engage with him, I couldn’t look at him.

“He was associated with what had happened and I found his crying incredibly triggering – and I couldn’t be left alone with him.”

Struggling with her mental health, the author described how the Crisis team would visit her and ask if she had spent time with her son, to which the TV personality would respond: “I’ve done three minutes”, a response which she now reflects is “just unthinkable”.

Fast forward three years and Louise, who has penned a book about her ordeal titled Lucky: Learning to Live Again, said she is “best friends” with her son and their relationship has gradually transformed.

Since her traumatic birth, Louise has also opened up about having a stoma bag fitted after having part of her colon removed, as well as being diagnosed with autoimmune condition lupus and Asherman’s syndrome, where scar tissue builds up inside the uterus.

Lucky: Learning To Live Again by Louise Thompson is available to buy on paperback from 24 April.