Baby Tommy’s our ‘light’, says grieving family of newborn whose mum died in childbirth
The family of a first-time mum who died in childbirth say her newborn son is the "light" that’s keeping them going through their grief.
Chelsea McGillivray suffered an unknown cardiac event during labour last Monday after what was believed to be a textbook pregnancy. The 31-year-old, from Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, received CPR but doctors were unable to resuscitate her. Her son Tommy was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit where he was monitored after the traumatic birth, but got home healthy two days later.
"I don’t think it has hit us yet," Chelsea’s sister-in-law Lorna McGillivray told BBC Radio Scotland’s Drivetime programme. "We will be laughing and telling stories one minute then we’re breaking down the next – so it’s a rollercoaster at the moment."
Navigating New Reality
Lorna, married to Chelsea’s brother Steven, described their efforts to cope with the loss:
We are all rallying around as much as we can and trying to navigate this new reality with baby Tommy here and Chelsea not.
Chelsea’s pregnancy was at full term when her waters broke and she went to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. She was checked over and told to go home. Her contractions then came on quickly, leading to a swift return to hospital, where it was confirmed she was in labour. But Lorna said Chelsea "crashed" as she was moved to the bed ready to give birth, prompting an immediate emergency response.
A Sudden Loss
All of Chelsea’s prenatal tests had been normal and the family said she had no underlying health conditions.
She wasn’t unwell – there were no signs of this, Lorna added.
According to MBRRACE-UK data, 252 women in the UK died during pregnancy or in the weeks after giving birth from 2022 to 2024, equivalent to 12.8 deaths for every 100,000 women giving birth. The overall rate of maternal death in the UK during this period was 20% higher than the rates from 2009 to 2011.
Doctors managed to deliver Tommy safely and he is now at home with dad, Jack.
Tommy is doing amazing," Lorna said. "He’s just perfect and he is the light that is keeping us going through all of this. We’re still trying to celebrate him being here even though we are going through the hardest time of our life because that is what Chelsea would want.
