Gently cradling her beautiful baby son, newsreader Sharyn Ghidella shudders as she recalls how close she might have been to losing him.
The former Today star was alone and afraid when, 34 weeks into her pregnancy, she began to haemorrhage. Rushed to hospital, she was warned that an emergency delivery might be needed for her baby to survive.
“It was an absolutely frightening experience,” says the 40-year-old first-time mum. “You instantly panic, ‘That’s it! This isn’t turning out like it’s supposed to.’ They couldn’t work out why I was bleeding, or where it was coming from, but it was a significant loss of blood and that’s the last thing you want when you’re pregnant.”
Sharyn’s partner of 19 years, freelance cameraman Paul Croll, was still on his way home from PNG, where he’d been working, when the medical drama unfolded.
And Sharyn had only just started her new job as Seven’s weekend newsreader in Brisbane. Her flying visit to Sydney was to fulfil a charity commitment to the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, which raises funds for children’s hospital equipment.
It had all been so normal. She’d waited in a taxi queue for an hour at the airport. The next day she was organising quotes for work on her Sydney home before it went up for sale. But then she began to haemorrhage and suddenly, terrifyingly, she feared that her precious baby was at risk.
“My obstetrician injected me with steroids to strengthen the baby’s lungs, and everybody told me he still had a fairly good chance of survival if he was born at 34 weeks, but I was still deeply concerned,” says the velvet-voiced broadcaster. “There was nothing I could do.”
Sharyn and Paul, who’d waited so long to become parents, simply hoped for the best — and after two days in hospital, the crisis passed. The mum-to-be was told to stay off her feet and remain in Sydney until her baby was born.
“Basically, I was grounded,” Sharyn laughs. “I couldn’t do anything very strenuous, but Seven was fantastic. When I told them I couldn’t go back to work in Brisbane, they arranged for me to read the news out of Sydney for a couple of weekends before the little man arrived.”
Austin Braydon Croll finally made his entrance at Sydney’s North Shore Private Hospital early on April 14 — only four days before he was due — weighing a small but healthy 2.65kg. For Sharyn, it was love at first sight…
For the full story, and more gorgeous pics, see this week’s issue of Woman’s Day (on-sale May 14).
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