Oti Mabuse has admitted that her first child required a stay in an intensive care unit after being born.
On Christmas Day, the former Strictly Come Dancing star confirmed that she had welcomed her first child, a baby girl, with her husband Marius Iepure.
However, Oti has now revealed that her daughter’s arrival was not a smooth one, as she was born prematurely and was in “critical condition” for the first six weeks of her life.
In this week’s episode of Giovanna Fletcher’s podcast Happy Mum Happy Baby, the 33-year-old recalled her birth story.
“We announced the baby when she was eight or nine weeks, but we just wanted to take time for ourselves, really,” Oti detailed, before going on to admit the reason why.
“She also was very premature - she came really, really early, which was a big shock,” she confessed, describing it as being a time of “emotional trauma”.
“Things don’t always go to plan, especially when you have a little premature baby. You give birth, you hug, and then the baby gets taken away. The next time you see them, they’re in a box and they’re wired up and they’re not well,” the Dancing On Ice judge explained.
“I think we didn’t hold her for about a week, because she was still in an incubator with wires, with jaundice. She had infections, because it turned out that I had sepsis,” Oti continued further.
The South African dancer went on to note how “traumatising” and “emotionally very exhausting” the six weeks were for her.
“It’s just really hard when you think what your baby’s going through. And again, that is not something natural that a child should feel when they come out,” she stated.
“You hear hospital machines, you get pricked and they get touched by midwives. And of course, it’s good for them, but it’s just not how you thought it would go. And for them, it’s just painful to come out and have an infection,” Oti added.
