29 year old Hayley from West Yorkshire was previously a social worker and is now nearing completion of her postgraduate degree in primary teaching in Year 6 this summer. She is also mum to two small children.

‘I enjoy running (most of the time!), the gym, playing with my children, especially at local parks and play areas and going out with friends for brunch and eating yummy pastries. I am also trying to get into gardening, but I am still trying to learn how to keep the plants alive’, she says.

She had no reason to believe that feeding her second child, a son born in 2023 would be any more challenging than her previous experience. But developing mastitis, as many mums do, was to have serious repercussions for Hayley, as she explains here.

When my first child – a daughter – was born, I expressed milk for over six months and felt certain this was something I would also do for my second child.

I had just given birth to my son, Oliver, but less than a week later I developed double mastitis. Things became painful very quickly, so I sought advice from midwives. Unfortunately, I was given conflicting advice and my condition continued to deteriorate.

I later attended the maternity assessment unit and was prescribed antibiotics. After taking them for several days with no improvement, I became extremely unwell, experiencing hot and cold sweats, fatigue, and feeling dazed. I am someone who doesn’t like to bother anyone and I delayed going to hospital because I worried I wouldn’t be considered poorly enough. But eventually, I felt so unwell that I left my husband and babies at home and went in. I recall wearing layers and layers of clothes and dressing gowns on my bed but still feeling freezing and shivering and sweating at the same time. My mum took me, and within ten minutes of arriving I was drifting in and out of consciousness, with doctors urgently squeezing IV treatment bags at my bedside. The look on my mum’s face coming to see me a few hours after I was admitted haunts me to this day – I can picture her face of horror and shock as she looked at how quickly I had deteriorated in the hospital bed.

I was being overseen by the high-dependency team. I recall a doctor from this unit coming and telling me that if he didn’t see any improvement within the next hour, I would be moved up to the high dependency unit. Because I was only 10 days postpartum, I was firstly treated at the maternity assessment unit. A busy maternity assessment unit, with the hustle and bustle of people coming and going, was deafeningly silent and lonely to me. I could not maintain consciousness long enough to have any real awareness of what was going on around me. I thankfully started to improve and they then moved me to the labour ward with a 1:1 nurse. I lay in bed on the labour ward day all night listening to other women screaming, experiencing the pain and discomfort of giving birth, having only done so myself less than two weeks earlier. All I can remember is crying to the doctor and saying, “I can’t die. I have a ten-day-old baby and a family.” I can also recall the painful blood test to test for infection and sepsis, which failed the first time, so I had to go through it twice. I was placed on 24-hour watch until I began to improve. I spent three nights in hospital before being discharged with further medication.

My husband is incredible and juggled our 22-month-old girl and a newborn at home alone, juggling the night shifts. I missed my family and new baby so much and Oliver was allowed to stay with me on night 3. I felt he was changing each day and I wasn’t at home to see it happening. I was also in hospital for our first wedding anniversary. We had a lovely evening planned which turned out to be Liam keeping me company at my bedside. I did not inform many family members or friends of my condition as I did not feel well enough to have visitors. However, once news got out, my friends and family were incredibly supportive.

Every day, I think about the “what ifs,” and what might have happened if I hadn’t gone to the hospital when I did.

I actually recall first getting mastitis and saying to Liam, ‘You know you can get sepsis from mastitis?’ in a jokey way as I was complaining how painful it was. However, I actually didn’t know how sepsis presented – had I known more, things might have played out differently.

I wasn’t able to give my son my own milk, and the guilt I have felt as a result of that has been incredibly heavy. I still have a single syringe of colostrum in my freezer that I can’t bring myself to throw away. It has become a powerful symbol of the trauma we went through. I had my daughter’s milk made into a ring, but I’ve never felt I deserved to do the same with my son’s, because I wasn’t able to produce milk for him for the same length of time. It’s something I’ve carried quietly ever since.

I am hoping to take part in the London Marathon for Sepsis Research FEAT in 2027. I feel it could give me the motivation and the justification to turn something so painful into something positive. Perhaps then I would finally allow myself to honour that small but meaningful piece of our story.

Sepsis impacted not just my life, but my family’s too. The experience was terrifying for all of us. I want to raise awareness of how quickly sepsis can develop, particularly in new mothers, and help fund vital research that saves lives. Taking on a challenge is my way of giving back, saying thank you and making sure that more families are spared the fear and uncertainty that mine went through.

My final message would be to never delay seeking medical help or downplay how unwell you feel. Trust your instincts, even if you worry about bothering others or feel unsure whether you are “ill enough”. Sepsis can develop frighteningly fast, especially in new mothers, and acting quickly can save your life. You know your body better than anyone. If something doesn’t feel right, speak up and get checked.

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Charity Comment:

Mastitis is a relatively common condition, particularly in breastfeeding women, of whom it is thought to affect around 30%, usually in the first 2 to 3 weeks post-partum. For most women it does not usually require medical treatment.

For Hayley and others like Ella, however, mastitis became something far more serious as the infection that they suffered developed into sepsis. Being aware as new mums of the level to which one’s immune system is compromised, and one’s susceptibility to infection is therefore increased, is helpful in recognising the symptoms of infection and getting them treated as quickly as possible. 

Their’s is a lesson not to brush off symptoms but to be vigilant and act quickly if you are at all concerned.

Sepsis Research FEAT is so grateful to Hayley for sharing her story with Sepsis Research FEAT as part of its maternal sepsis awareness campaign and hopes to have the chance to work with her in the future as she considers undertaking a challenge event for this charity.