Mum loses unborn baby after toddler picks up 'slapped cheek sickness' from nursery

A "heartbroken" woman said she lost her and was in danger of dying herself after her toddler picked up a at nursery and passed it on.

Farran Wilkins, 35, and her partner, Robert West, 34, were expecting their first baby together but lost their unborn at 25 weeks due to the slapped cheek virus. Maple, aged three, who is Farran's daughter from a previous, came home from nursery with fever, red cheeks, a runny nose and a rash, when Farran was 17 weeks pregnant in April. She was diagnosed with slapped cheek - also known as parvovirus.

The illness mostly spreads through droplets like a cold - it is not life-threatening but can be to unborn babies. Weeks later, in May, a routine scan showed Farron's unborn baby - who she named Floss - was unwell. The unborn baby was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition resulting from the parvovirus infecting Farran which was passed to her in the womb. Despite intervention Floss didn't recover and was stillborn at 25 weeks, on June 14.

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Farran's life was in danger too, because the baby's illness was filling her body with fluid. Now Farran, a receptionist from Gravesend, Kent, wants to raise awareness of the risks of parvovirus to unborn babies. She said: "This was the most heartbreaking thing we've ever been through. We had to make a choice to terminate the for medical reasons - it's not a choice at all, it's just horrible. Floss and I could easily have both died."

"There needs to be more awareness for healthcare professionals, educational staff and pregnant women - there needs to be a government campaign. Parvo is on the rise and nobody is aware of the risks. I had no idea it could cross the placenta. I had a and asked my GP about the risks but he said it would be fine, so he didn't know the risks either."

"We're all told about chicken pox but we need more information on parvovirus and it's a bigger risk at the moment. If I had known the risks and known there was a parvo outbreak at nursery I would never have sent Maple there." Neither Farran or her partner Rob worried when Maple was ill with slapped cheek or when the mum had a sore throat. But medics at Daren't Valley Hospital spotted fluid in Floss' stomach, in her head and around her heart at her anomaly scan at 22 weeks.

Farran was referred to Professor Ranjit Akolekar, a specialist in foetal medicine, at Medway Hospital. He diagnosed Floss with a condition called hydrops - resulting from severe anaemia - in turn caused by parvovirus crossing the placenta. When parvovirus infects a baby in the womb it causes severe anaemia with the baby's blood becoming very diluted from a lack of iron.

Floss' blood was a light yellow colour instead of red, Farron said. The unborn baby's body becomes filled with fluid - which is a sign of hydrops, a life-threatening condition and she was beginning to suffer heart failure by the time she was diagnosed at 23 weeks.

Prof Akolekar and his team gave Floss a blood transfusion through the umbilical cord, but a scan 10 days later showed the blood was watery again. Farran was also developing something called mirror syndrome, where her body was also filling with fluid, which was putting her own life at risk.

And so Farran and Rob had to make the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy at 25 weeks after being told Floss would not be able to recover. "The care I received was amazing! They tried everything, I was completely in awe of what they could do," said Farran.

"But even with the new blood she wasn't able to fight the virus. We didn't have a choice in the end - she had been struggling with watery blood for too long. They said she would die of heart failure, and my life was at risk too. There was so much fluid in my legs that I couldn't bend them - they were huge, and I looked full-term."

"There's a terrible lack of information about parvo. So many pregnant women have children in primary school or nursery and parvo is a childhood disease. We need to be better informed - I just want to save more babies."

Several reports say human parvovirus (B19V) cases increased across Europe last winter. The risk to pregnant women is classed as low to moderate, with babies up to 20 weeks being at highest risk. "Pregnant women and other high risk groups should be counselled about the risks," Farran said.