Aimee Vivian opens up about struggle with mastitis and her fight to be believed

Writing for LBC, Aimee explained the struggles she faced to be diagnosed in the weeks after the birth of her daughter Charli.

Mastitis is an inflammation of breast tissue, most commonly linked to breastfeeding, and can cause extreme pain and life-threatening infections.

Writing for LBC Opinion, Aimee said: “Four weeks after giving birth, I was lying in a hospital bed questioning if I would ever get to see my daughter grow up.

“Post birth, I struggled to get my daughter Charli to latch.

Read more: Mastitis nearly killed me. What shocked me more was how hard I had to fight to be believed, writes Aimee Vivian

“She had a tongue tie, and I had a huge oversupply, which meant I was suffering from constant engorgement. The advice was different every time I saw a professional and eventually, as warned, I developed symptoms of mastitis.”

Aimee explained that despite going to her GP, medical professionals insisted that all she had was breast engorgement.

She said: “The GP, who was a woman, was very adamant that it was just breast engorgement and it was simply because she couldn't latch, and the best thing I could do was get her on the boob.

“No matter what I said to her, that was her only response.

“We've all heard many stories of women's health concerns being ignored, and in the back of my mind, I kept thinking of Louise Thompson, who has done amazing things to raise awareness about advocating for yourself after her own personal struggles during childbirth and beyond. I kept telling myself, ‘You know yourself, you know something's not right. Tell her.’

Despite explaining her symptoms, doctors failed to listen to her.

“I managed to persuade her, however the GP was still adamant I didn't have mastitis. She caveated it by asking me to hold off taking them unless my symptoms didn't improve by Saturday.

“I left that Thursday afternoon, questioning myself and how well I knew my body. I still didn’t feel well, but I thought maybe she was right.”

In the coming days, she suffered extreme pain, her body would shake so badly it woke her husband sleeping next to her.

“My breasts were so painful that the only thing I could do was try to relieve the pressure with a manual pump. That's when we noticed that my milk was visibly infected.”

The next morning she took to social media, asking her followers: “Do any doctors follow me? My milk is visibly infected. I think I've got mastitis."

Kerry, a “lovely” midwife who had helped Aimee with her C-section scar, got in touch and told her she needed to go to hospital immediately.

Aimee added: “So that's what I did. Within two and a half hours of being down there, they'd done my blood tests, they'd done my blood pressure, taken my temperature and I was on the ward, hooked up to a drip, being pumped full of antibiotics.

“The infection had turned to sepsis.

“The following few days are all a blur, but one night I remember sitting in the hospital bed on my own thinking, ‘I’m never going to get home to her ever again. I’m never going to see her grow up’.

“I looked at a midwife who came to do her rounds, stone cold in the eye, and said ‘please do not let me die tonight’.

“I'm speaking out about this because I want it to be educational for other women.

“I don't want this to be fearmongering. I want to shout about how brilliant women are, how incredible our bodies are through pregnancy and beyond, and how it amazes me how little care there can be for bringing the future generations of the world to life.

“I want to be clear: this isn't me slandering all medical professionals - I met some incredible people who I couldn't have done this without.

“If hearing my story helps one person to recognise the symptoms earlier than I did to really advocate for themselves, then that’s a win.

“If I knew from day one how serious engorgement could be, what mastitis exactly was, and the symptoms to look for, I would have gone to the GP sooner, I would have taken those antibiotics sooner, and I might not have got the sepsis.”