DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I felt a pop in my uterus at 38 weeks pregnant. Then I looked down.'

"I'm 38 and a half weeks pregnant. I felt a popping in my uterus, and I just had a huge gush of blood, and it's not stopping."

"Do you have anybody there with you at the moment?"

"No, I'm home alone."

It's a terrifying conversation that seems as if it's pulled straight from an episode of Grey's Anatomy or 9-1-1.

But for Sabrina Banayad, it was her reality.

It was the first day of Sabrina's maternity leave with her second pregnancy, when she woke up with what felt like period cramps. Based on her last pregnancy, she thought labour might start that night.

But things took a dangerous turn much sooner.

"I was lying in bed and I felt a pop in my uterus. And I cannot tell you to this day whether it was an audible pop, but to me it felt very audible. I could hear and feel it and I thought, 'Oh, that was really funny'," she told Mamamia's Diary of a Birth podcast.

First, watch the trailer for Mamamia's Diary of a birth podcast. Post continues below.

Sabrina had enough time to quickly Google, "pregnant uterus pop" when she felt a sudden gush between her thighs.

"I thought, 'Oh, this this must be my waters. This must be what it feels like'," she thought.

The reality was far more serious.

"As I pulled my underwear down, blood ran down my legs and spilled out over onto the floor.

"It was fresh and it was continuous."

Sabrina immediately called triple-0. While waiting for the ambulance, she messaged her husband, sister, and mother. She grabbed a towel and managed to put on a disposable nappy to contain the bleeding.

"I thought to myself, what happens if I pass out from blood loss and they can't get in the front door? What happens then?"

The triple-0 operator was trying to keep Sabrina calm while paramedics rushed to her home.

"I was trying very hard to be absolutely in the moment," Sabrina said.

Luckily the paramedics arrived and rushed her to the nearest hospital.

Listen to Sabrina's birth story on Diary of a Birth. Post continues below.

At the hospital, Sabrina saw her husband and the "flood of emotions" opened.

"I started bawling my eyes out and I remember holding on to him and saying like, 'I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm just so happy that you're here. Like you're my person, and we're together.'"

Though Sabrina felt what she thought were contractions, the obstetrician initially told her she wasn't in labour. However, things changed dramatically when the medical team assessed her blood loss.

"The midwives had removed my adult nappy and had taken the second adult nappy off the paramedics and they weighed those, and when they communicated the weight of those to the obstetrician, everything changed," she recalled.

"They flip-switch quite quickly. The obstetrician looks at me and is very direct, very straight with me and says, 'You're losing too much blood. We need to get this baby out immediately. We are taking you into surgery."

Doctors discovered she was experiencing a placental abruption, a serious condition where the placenta detaches from the uterine wall before delivery. According to medical experts, this condition can cause heavy bleeding and be life-threatening to both mother and baby if not treated promptly.

Sabrina lost approximately 2.5 litres of blood (not including the blood lost at home) and required a transfusion.

Her severe case, occurring in approximately 1 in 2000 births, had doctors preparing for a possible hysterectomy if the bleeding couldn't be controlled.

Sabrina wants to raise awareness about birth complications. Image: Supplied.

In the operating theatre, Sabrina remembers the surrounding chaos.

"I remember looking up at the ceiling and seeing people everywhere and hearing so many voices… but as soon as the anaesthesiologist said Sabrina and spoke directly to me, I knew, this is the voice to hang on to."

Despite the emergency, doctors successfully delivered baby Sienna.

"They lifted her out and the umbilical cord obviously came and the placenta came with it," Sabrina said.

"In those last moments, the placenta had almost completely detached from my uterus. That was the cause of the bleeding."

Sabrina in hospital. Image: Supplied.

When Sabrina woke up a few hours later in recovery, she felt reassured that everything was finally okay.

"We were extremely lucky in the way that Sienna wasn't deprived of oxygen and the timing must have just been perfect that she came out and was breathing usually," she said.

"She came out screaming and, because of the nature of the birth, the room was filled with paediatricians. Everyone has told me there was huge relief from everybody in the room."

While Sabrina slept, her husband held little Sienna close, sharing some precious skin-to-skin time.

"From there, it was just becoming more alert to my surroundings and just really taking in that amazement of, you know, I have this new baby and this baby is mine."

Baby Sienna. Image: Supplied.

Though it took Sabrina days to fully comprehend how serious her situation had been, she doesn't want her story to frighten expectant parents. Instead, she hopes to raise awareness about birth complications.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with learning about the different things that can happen in birth and the different pathways that it can take," she said.

Her message is simple but potentially life-saving: trust your instincts.

"If something is wrong, act. There is no shame in acting where it is not needed. And if you have to backtrack, that's completely fine. But if you act immediately and it's needed, then you can save your life, you can save your baby's life."

ICYMI, check out these birth stories:

• DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I felt an intense pain in the shower. When I looked down, I saw my baby's head.'

• DIARY OF A BIRTH: Laura cried tears of joy at her 7 week scan. Then her obstetrician went silent.

• Francesca unexpectedly went into intense labour at the family home. So her dad stepped in.

For more Diary of a Birth stories, head here.

Feature image: Supplied.