Mother Recounts Stroke Ordeal Weeks After Childbirth, Feeling Like a “Burden”

A mother who experienced a stroke three weeks following childbirth expressed profound sadness over her inability to care for her newborn baby. Charlotte Coulbert, a resident of Stramshall, Staffordshire, collapsed in June 2022 while watching television with her husband and their three children. The stroke occurred during her ambulance journey to the hospital, caused by a clot obstructing the blood flow to her brain. She was placed in an induced coma, emerging 10 days later with right-sided paralysis and aphasia, a communication disorder known to affect memory. Mrs. Coulbert, 37, reported that it took her three weeks to recall her date of birth and half a year to manage walking only a short distance. She expressed feeling like a “burden” to her family, while also conveying gratitude to her husband, Chay, for caring for her and their three children—Jaxon (now six), Theo (now four), and Verity (now two), who was a newborn at the time. She stated, “It was heartbreaking, really, as a mother, not being able to support your newborn.” She further explained, “My husband had to do everything… he had to source a nanny because he couldn’t look after all three kids and work, and pay for that.” Mrs. Coulbert, who had delivered Verity through a planned c-section on May 24, 2022, recalled collapsing and struggling for breath only weeks afterward. “It was terrifying; I was struggling to breathe, and the paramedics kept telling me ‘Charlotte, you have to breathe’, until I zoned out completely,” she recounted. She subsequently discovered that the clot originated from an undiagnosed hole in her heart. Upon regaining consciousness from her coma at Royal Stoke University Hospital, Mrs. Coulbert expressed being “devastated” by missing ten days of her newborn’s early life. She added, “When I woke up and could just see Verity, it was surreal, she’d grown even in that time. I attempted to feed her with a bottle, but I was so weak I couldn’t really do it.” “It was very difficult for me; strange – I couldn’t believe it really happened, I was still in shock,” she further stated. Since then, she has recovered a significant portion of her strength, reporting the ability to perform household tasks like preparing simple meals, loading the dishwasher, and doing laundry. She anticipates resuming her sales career, aided by a walking stick and enhanced speech. Mrs. Coulbert emphasized her desire for increased public awareness regarding stroke symptoms and for people to comprehend that strokes do “not just happen to elderly people.”