If I’d ignored a sudden itch so intense I was left bleeding trying to ease it with a FORK, my baby and I might be dead

WHEN mum Dayna Persaud was suddenly struck by an extreme and uncontrollable itch while she was pregnant, she thought little of it.

It was her third pregnancy and the fact her first two had passed with nothing to worry about, she assumed it was nothing to do with her due date looming.

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But when the itching grew worse, so intense she was forced to use a wooden fork from a takeaway to try to relieve it, she sought help.

Yet, despite the fact she was left bleeding from her attempts to relieve the itch, it took medics weeks to realise she was suffering a life-threatening condition, putting both her life, and that of her unborn son at risk.

A fortnight before her due date on February 7, 2024, the 36-year-old was whisked into theatre for an emergency C-section and woke up with no idea what happened.

Mum-of-three Dayna later discovered she had acute fatty liver in pregnancy (AFLP), which can be fatal.

It’s a rare condition affecting about one in 20,000 pregnancies, and is more common in first pregnancies.

Symptoms include fatigue, nausea and vomiting, as well as itching – something Dayna suffered to the extreme.

Dayna, who is mum to Kayden, nine, Kiara, three, and Kylan, one, tells Sun Health: “It’s a miracle I am here.

“Every day I am grateful to be alive. If I’d ignored the itching much longer I might not be here.”

Dayna, a primary school teacher and lives with partner Kevon, 40, in Rainham, East London, was two weeks from the due date of her third child when she started itching uncontrollably.

Her previous pregnancies had been fine so she had no reason to suspect anything dangerous was going on.

But the itching grew more intense.

“It got worse and worse,” she says. “It was on the soles of my feet, my legs, my back.

“My nails would not deliver relief when I scratched so I took a little wooden fork from a local takeaway cafe and would scratch myself with that for hours.

“I was going mad with itching and the hard material was the only thing reliving it. I was also excessively thirsty.”

She told her midwife, who did blood tests, but these always “came back fine”.

“There seemed to be no reason and nothing wrong showing up,” she says.

Dayna carried on itching and continued scratching herself with a fork.

“I bled from the ferocity of my scratching,” she says. “I just hoped it would all stop once I had the baby.

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“Meanwhile, I was still looking after two other young children. I was exhausted.”

Then Dayna had a routine blood test but felt very unwell during the procedure.

“I thought it was just general pregnancy tiredness as I was nearing my due date,” she recalls.

When she got home, she had just sat down when her nurse rang to say: “Get to hospital now. You need to have the baby.”

Dayna says: “I was so shocked. I’d just got in and my older two kids were at school and nursery.

“I had to quickly call Kevon to get childcare sorted and then my sister rushed me to hospital without even a hospital bag.”

When she arrived at Whittington Hospital in Archway on January 24, Dayna began to feel even worse.

“I felt dizzy and just incredibly unwell,” she says.

Her last memory is getting into the car. Then everything went blank.

I didn’t even know what AFLP is, let alone that it could happen after two healthy pregnancies

Danya Persaud

“When I came to, I was in intensive care, tubes snaking out of me and my tummy was flatter,” Dayna says.

“I vaguely recalled I’d been pregnant and taken to theatre.

"But my baby wasn’t at my side. I was confused, and cried asking what had happened.”

Doctors explained she had had her son by emergency caesarean section while unconscious, and she had had AFLP.

“I had had two babies and that's why midwives never suspected it, even though I was furiously itching,” she says.

At her bedside, Dayna’s partner revealed that she had developed sepsis - a life-threatening response to an infection - and been given a 50/50 chance of survival.

Doctors had saved her life and the baby’s, and given her strong intravenous antibiotics just in time.

When she was well enough, Dayna was wheeled to meet her baby, who was in neonatal intensive care.

He was healthy and weighed 5lbs 6oz. She named him Kylan.

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“He looked so small yet so strong,” Dayna says.

“He was being tube fed but I insisted on trying to feed him myself. Thankfully he did take to feeding.”

For 10 days Dayna remained in hospital recovering with Kylan.

“It was so intense,” she says. “I was trying to feed and get to know my baby but I was being monitored 24/7, was on drips, having blood tests as well as intravenous antibiotics.

“I was on blood thinners too. I also got jaundice and had a blood transfusion.”

I fear I may have passed [acute fatty liver] on to him

Danya Persaud

Finally, after almost two weeks, she was well enough to go home.

It then took months to feel like herself again.

“Recovery was months mentally, physically and emotionally,” Dayna says.

“Having two other children was the most challenging part as I didn’t have time to think about myself.

“I just got on with everyday life, dropping my kids to school, cooking, and cleaning.”

Now, Dayna is raising awareness of AFLP so other mums know the risk.

“I didn’t even know what AFLP is, let alone that it could happen after two healthy pregnancies,” she says.

“I want to tell my story to make other women aware that if they are itching like I was, they need to seek a second opinion.

“I am even being used for a medical conference for doctors, proving it can happen to anyone and even in third pregnancies.”

Her son Kylan has just celebrated turning one.

“It was a big celebration because there was a moment both of us might not have made it,” she says.

But he is now undergoing testing and the youngster has also started itching.

“I fear I may have passed it on to him,” Dayna says.

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