"All was going well and my 16 week scan showed two healthy babies. Two weeks later I had some pains and heavy discharge. I went to the hospital where I was checked out and had a scan. All seemed ok with the babies and I was prescribed antibiotics for a UTI." "The following morning I felt very sick and started to bleed so I went into the maternity emergency room again. There I was examined and told I was losing the babies. I was told to go get a cup of coffee while they arranged a bed for me!"

The mother of one said she was left on her own in the hospital while staff tried to find a bed for her. After getting a bed, she felt her waters breaking and the midwife told her that she would "pass the babies any minute now." She said she was given antibiotics to prevent infection in the womb. A scan the following day showed no fluid in the sacs but both fetuses had heartbeats.

"We were told again that they should pass soon that there was no hope for them but we just had to let nature take its course. I remember one doctor said in another country we could give you a pill for this." "This went on for six more days, every day being sent down for a scan. Every day waiting with all the expectant mothers and big baby bumps. Trying to hide my tears in case I upset another pregnant woman."

The woman who wishes to remain anonymous said that she and her partner spent time reading up on break-through medical advances in America, in the hope of finding some way to save their babies. They found treatments where doctors repaired ruptured membranes in the womb.

"Nothing like that was being mentioned or offered to us. In fact, bar looking after me nothing was being done to help my babies. I was told there was no point taking my iron and folic acid supplements. Basically there was no hope for my babies as far as medicine in Ireland was concerned yet I had to remain pregnant."

After six days of scans and distress, the cord of one of the babies deteriorated.

"My baby girl's cord prolapsed and she died in my womb. The scan the following morning showed her heart had stopped. Later that evening she started to slip away and I was taken to the labour ward to deliver her." "We got to see her and hold her while we waited for her placenta to deliver. Her cord had broken during delivery. As my baby boy still had a heartbeat, the doctors couldn't do anything to help the placenta along."

She was sent back to the ward to wait, still carrying the placenta from her daughter.

"All antibiotics were stopped now as they could mask septicaemia so again we just had to wait while the midwives checked me regularly for signs of infection. This went on for seven days." "Seven days of scans. Seven days of a heartbeat. Seven days of internal exams and twice daily blood tests. Seven days of waiting."

The woman said that her doctors were frustrated as they knew she would get sick quickly and could not act until then.

"There was nothing they could do until my life was actually 'at risk'. So after a week of waiting, I finally got sick. Very sick. This wasn't negligence on the hospital's behalf, they absolutely knew I was going to get sick. You can't leave a rotting placenta inside a woman." "When you give birth full-term to a living baby, there is a degree of urgency to deliver the placenta and make sure it has all delivered as it can cause complications. Leaving a placenta for seven days was going to lead to an infection. The doctors knew this but their hands were tied due to the 8th amendment because my 19-week old fetus had a heartbeat. He had a heartbeat but no chance of survival whereas the chances of me getting sick were almost definite."

She said that she was feeling fine one minute then suddenly started vomiting and shaking uncontrollably.

"Luckily, my partner was there and called for help. That's how fast sepsis hits. That's why thousands die a year from it." "So finally my life was at risk, the doctors could take action. I was brought down to the labour ward and induced and put on multiple IV antibiotics immediately. My kidneys began to shut down. My lungs filled with fluid. I was in so much pain, struggling to breathe while trying to labour my baby who I knew wouldn't survive the labour." "We asked what would happen if he was born alive and we were told nothing would happen, that they wouldn't intervene as he was only 20 weeks. So we were thankful that he didn't survive the labour as to watch him slowly die would have been unbearable."

The woman said that after the labour her condition deteriorated rapidly.

"We barely got to see our little boy as I was rushed immediately to the high dependency unit where a team of doctors fought to keep me alive."

She said she spent the next week in the intensive care unit.

"I needed vasopressors to raise my blood pressure, IV fluids, IV antibiotics and a blood transfusion. I spent another two weeks in hospital after that." "Five weeks in total, being away from my daughter who was eight at the time. I loved my babies of course but I loved my living, breathing child at home a thousand times more. It broke my heart to be away from her." "All this for a baby, a fetus that the system would do nothing for once he was out of my womb but my LIFE was worth risking when he was in it."

Telling her story, the woman expressed how upset she gets when she thinks of Savita Halappanavar as she says she feels she was "lucky" compared to her.

"If I had died it would have been one hundred percent due to the 8th amendment. But would people know that or would they be told it was due to infection caused by a miscarriage?" "It's insane and cruel that women need to get so sick before doctors can intervene. It's madness that I consider myself lucky to have survived a miscarriage."

The woman feels the 8th amendment was also cruel to her babies.

"Was it humane to leave them slowly die in my womb, without fluid? My little girl slowly being deprived of oxygen over 24 hours until her heart stopped. My boy lying against my womb wall drying out for weeks and alongside a rotting placenta for seven days??" "And what about my older girl to be without her mother for five weeks? Not knowing or understanding why I couldn't come home.....why being pregnant was making me so sick." "All I could think about as I lay there realising that I might actually die was my daughter. Thankfully it didn't come to that...I was lucky."