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

What had got me there was a series of failings that now motivate me to call on medical professionals, politicians and those with influence to do better for women’s health.

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

I had gone to see my GP and to be completely honest, it was not a pleasant experience at all. I felt shamed by the fact that Charli couldn’t latch and that we were pumping, not breastfeeding. I know my body - after 10 years of tests to diagnose my coeliac disease, I’ve learnt to understand what feels right and what doesn’t.

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."

I explained that my symptoms (headaches, chills, redness, and hard, sore breasts) were all signs of mastitis and that I thought I needed some antibiotics.

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.

During the early hours of Sunday morning, I woke to give Charli a feed and I could barely keep my head up it was so painful. My body shook so badly I woke my husband. It was a hot night amidst a heatwave, but I couldn’t warm up. 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.

That morning, feeling desperate despite usually keeping these types of things private, I asked on Instagram for some advice. I wrote: "Do any doctors follow me? My milk is visibly infected. I think I've got mastitis."

A lovely midwife called Kerry, who had seen me to check my C-section scar, messaged me back and said "You need to get down to the hospital now". There's an emergency department for maternity, so you can use it when you're pregnant and four weeks post birth. At this point, I was two days off from being four weeks - I was so close to not being able to use that facility.

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’d never felt like this before and the infection wasn’t budging. I tried to remain positive when Charli came to visit, as babies feed off your energy, and I was determined, despite our surroundings, for her to think her mummy was happy, no matter what I felt inside.

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.

The first doctor I saw at the hospital when I went in with the infection told me once I was better that she had never dealt with a patient who had mastitis that turned into sepsis before.

She told me that she went home that night and researched mastitis because she wanted to become a GP and to know exactly what to look out for if she ever treated another new mum with the symptoms I had, so she could know how to help them.

I will forever be grateful for her quick thinking, changing the antibiotics when they weren't working and the sepsis took hold, and for genuinely caring about educating herself to help others.

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.

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Aimee Vivian is a radio presenter, DJ and TV presenter.

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