Mum Lauren Parker has admitted she is worried “people are gonna think I’m a really bad mum” now – but she wants to break the stigma surrounding a ‘terrifying side of motherhood’
A mum has spoken candidly about a “careless” mistake that could have killed her four-week-old daughter.
Lauren Parker, who lives in London, explained that the terrifying incident took place when her little girl was only four weeks old.
She is opening up about the events of that day in order to help raise awareness and break the stigma surrounding the “terrifying side of motherhood that people don’t talk about, that you do make mistakes and some of them can end really badly and some of them are just pure luck”.
Sharing her story on TikTok, Lauren explained that she was living with her mother at the time, and that she decided to bathe her month-old baby, before dressing her in nightwear and nursing her until she fell asleep in her arms.
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Lauren put her daughter in a Moses basket, which she then picked up to take her downstairs, where her own mother and sister were.
But the evening took a terrifying turn when her cat ran between her feet causing her to trip on the stairs.
While Lauren managed to stay on her feet and keep hold of the Moses basket, she quickly realised that her daughter had fallen out and was rolling down each step in what seemed like ‘slow motion’.
“I’ve never been in shock like that since – If I had run after her, I probably would have reached the bottom step before she did,” Lauren acknowledged, “but I didn’t move – all I did was I started screaming”.
Hearing her screams, Lauren’s mum and sister raced to the scene where they discovered what had happened. While her mother picked up the baby and took her into the living room, Lauren remained statue-like at the top of the staircase.
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“The reason I didn’t go downstairs to check on her is because I thought I had ‘unalived’ her because she wasn’t moving,” Lauren admitted. “I genuinely thought my daughter was dead so I just sat at the top of the stairs crying.”
The family called on a family friend, who worked as a doctor and drove them straight to hospital. Lauren herself can’t remember coming down the stairs – only the fact that her baby looked ‘pale’ and ‘washed out’ immediately after the accident.
She said she was absolutely ‘convinced’ her little girl had either died or had been left with major brain damage. But to everyone’s immense relief, scans at the hospital revealed her baby was ‘completely fine’.
Explaining her decision to speak out about the terrifying incident, Lauren said: “I wish mums would share more stories like that and I know why we don’t, it’s because we’re embarrassed and we think people are gonna judge us – trust me, I’m worried now people are gonna think I’m a really bad mum.
“I think it’s important to show this really terrifying side of motherhood that people don’t talk about, that you do make mistakes and some of them can end really badly and some of them are just pure luck,” she concluded.