Mum says tummy tuck nearly killed her baby

Laura O'Donnell, 28, from Cefn Mawr had a tummy tuck operation after having four children, with no plans for another.

The model has been telling Heart that after finding out she was pregnant again, it became clear that the tightening operation was cause problems with the pregnancy: "they pulled the muscles so tight that it actually squashed my baby.

"My right kidney and 18 weeks got completely blocked and I had to have a stent put in it.

"But then it got to 32 weeks and I couldn't cope any more and my body went into labour" 

Blake was born nine months ago at the SCBU at Wrexham's Maelor hospital after an emergency c-section, a service which could be moved to the Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral.  A consultation is currently being held about the plans.

Laura thinks that the added journey to the Wirral, would have had tragic consequences: "if I had hace carried on with the labour, because of the tummy tuck and the stitches, it felt like Chinese burns, I actually thought my stomach was going to rip.

"If he hadn't have been born there and then, the likelyhood is he wouldn't have survived."

Laura is now raising money for the SCBU unit in Wrexham through a new calendar.

Laura O'Donnell talks to Heart's Andy Downton