And do you think about HELLP as something transient? So, it affected the pregnancy with sort of no long term complications.

Well it’s funny because we had a conversation the other week with Mairi’s mother and they were saying, “God, Alex is so clumsy, he’s all over the shop.”

You know he can fall over without even touching anything. And she said, “Do you think it could have anything to do with the, you know just the birth and the circumstances or anything like that?” I says, “No.” So, very much in my mind it’s something that happened; hasn’st had any long term consequences and was, as you say, transient in that sense. But who knows right, you know I mean I don’st think so but not if you don’st know, you don’st know, right?

As I said to you that, you know I wasn’st really that au fait with pre-eclampsia full stop.

Yeah sure.

And then you’sveyou know so it’s a sort of assumed knowledge and then you’sve got a variant or whatever you know and so just sort of filling in some of the back story really, the bits that you didn’st have.

And then, you know you get that classic situation where you’sve had something happen to you and it’s like, ‘Oh so and so’s sister had it and she was really poorly and thenoh and blah blah blah,’ and then suddenly everybody’s coming out the woodwork, because you know like people keep it to themselves until there’s a common thread of, you know like other people having had it so.

And anyway when we got to that point and it was like, “Right, you’re up at this end.” I was thinking, ‘Thank goodness for that. And then I’m like sort of talking to Mairi but like at the corner of my eye I’m aware of all the stuff going on. But, ‘God I don’st want to see that; I don’st want to be able to see that,’ and so I was like so I was getting a bit of a panic on, and then I was thinking not like the chopping open and all that, and then I was thinking, ‘Would it be totally like unreasonable to say something,’ given that your wife’s lying out here; is going to get chopped open and have, you know all this, to be worrying about your little whether I see it or not. And then just as I was thinking, ‘I’m going to have say something,’ somebody just came and put a massive big curtain and I was like, ‘Oh thank goodness.

And then after that it was pretty smooth sailing.

Again I mean probably naively again, but we were just like, we’re better off at home because it’s a nicer place to be and we can just get on with sort of having the baby rather than it being part of a kind of medical situation. So, we were just keen to get home. Mairi wanted to get home. If the doctor said it was OK we’d get discharged why not?

So, it was very much the sort of driven by us. I don’st think all other things well definitely all other things being equal, we wouldn’st have been out if we hadn’st wanted to be out. You know we weren’t pushed it, and as I said, you know pretty much once you’re back in the mainstream and you’re like OK. We were in a ward with people who have had a similar birthing experience; you know not all the rest of it that goes with it. How do you get out of here? And the midwife says, “Well, you know you need to be sitting up with your hair washed and brushed and looking like you want to get home.” And over the way there was a woman who just I don’st think that she’d probably been there for about four weeks; she’d not got that yet, you know she was still lolling about. You’re never getting of hospital like that you know. So, we were a bit more like that just kind of, you know take the appropriate steps and don’st do anything stupid. But by the same token we’ll discharge at our pace if we can and just be deflected from that where it’s appropriate by the doctors.

And the biggest challenge we had was the section rather than anything else because obviously then that limits what you can do. So, I had two weeks off work, paternity and everything, so that got us to a point but you still need more mobility than you had in terms of being able to drive the car and everything.

But then Mairi walked down to the doctors from our old flat; down to the doctors in the snow because it was like the worst winter that we’ve ever had and pushing the pram to see about when she might be allowed and he said, “You’sve walked like a mile and a half down here pushing a pram; drive next time” you know. It was an empirical test for whether you’re capable of that, and that’ll do you sort of thing. So you know and then things started to ease off a little bit and but yeah it was good though.

And did you discuss it at work?

Yeah, yeah you know I not because obviously I was like not off work, not expecting to be on paternity leave; it was like just running into Christmas, so the general thought was at some point in the Christmas period I’ll have we’ll have the baby and then I won’t come back into the new year. And then so suddenly it was all action but I was ringing in saying, “I’ve got to go up to the hospital; pick Mairi up because she was unwell last night but” and then you’re ringing in like a bit later saying, “I’m not going to be in at all,” or, “I won’t be in tomorrow,” and then you know. So, like obviously people are aware that this has been something that hasn’st necessarily been unplanned and all that. So, yeah I explained yeah quite freely actually.

I work with like 90% guys to be honest, and so I don’st think they necessarily had a great depth of knowledge about what it was, but you say, “Oh it’s like pre-eclampsia.” “Oh my sister had that,” and you know it’s the usual thing. So, yeah but I’m happy to share those things…