Bolton: Mum's dream to bring her baby daughter home from hospital

Matilda Mai Bowcock was born on November 18, 2022, at Liverpool Women’s Hospital via a C-section and then transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital at 30 minutes old.

Up until Loren Alice Bowcock, from Heaton, was 20 weeks pregnant, she had no concerns that there was anything to worry about.

But during her 20-week scan at St Mary’s Hospital, Loren found out that Matilda had a heart condition known as transposition of the great arteries.

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Loren said: “When she was first born, she went straight to the respiratory ward and had a breathing tube attached, and she was not stable.

“I didn’t hold her or cuddle her until she was five days old when she got off the ventilator and then she got put back on a ventilator that day, and I didn’t hold her again until she was four weeks old.

“It’s absolutely life-changing.

“She has been through so much in such a short amount of time.”

Loren says that she has only been able to pick her up in the last two weeks, and that it made her not “feel like a mum” being unable to do this before.

Matilda has been to the operating theatre as many as 14 times, which has included having multiple chest drains attached to her, to drain the fluid around her lungs.

She has also had a cardiac arrest and at the time Loren says she thought she lost her.

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Loren said: “I thought I lost her and her body gave up.

“She’s quite stable at the minute, but every time she goes to critical care, I break down.

“I don’t think you understand until it happens to you, and you don’t realise others are going through it too.”

Loren also has two other children Harley, 11, and Mya, seven, who are looked after by Loren’s parents Lorraine and Peter in Bolton, when she is in Liverpool by Matilda’s side.

Loren with son Harley, daughter Mya, and Matilda (Image: Public)

She said: “I try and go two nights to see my other children.

“It’s exhausting mentally, physically, and financially.

“It’s hard for them but they have been over in the holidays and on weekends and they stay with me sometimes to see Matilda.

“They are too young to completely understand, but they know I am two days here and that we will be together one day.

“There are times when I’ve gone home and came back because Matilda’s had a bad turn.”

Matilda underwent her first procedure – a septostomy - in the first few hours of reaching Alder Hey before undergoing a nine-and-a-half-hour open heart operation.

She has also had a duct ligation surgery after her open heart surgery, due to having a condition known as chylothorax.

Loren says that the condition is usually treated within four to six weeks, but doctors have said that Loren should take things month by month.

She said: “We are waiting for her body to recover and grow since she is only 10lbs at the moment and is fed through a peg and on a lot of medication.

“I am hopeful now but not too long ago I wasn’t.

“The consultant said they can’t promise the best outcome because she has been so challenged.

“But giving up is not an option.”

Loren has also urged expectant mothers to go for their 20-week scans to be on the safe side.

To help support Loren and Matilda on their journey click here (www.gofundme.com/f/r2arv-matilda-mais-tga-journey).

If you have a story and something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at jasmine.jackson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @JournoJasmine.