Mum felt like a burden after suffering stroke

Charlotte Coulbert suffered a stroke three weeks after giving birth to her daughter Verity

A mum who suffered a stroke three weeks after giving birth said she was left heartbroken at not being able to support her newborn baby.

Charlotte Coulbert, from Stramshall, Staffordshire, collapsed while watching TV with her husband and three children in June 2022.

It was on the way to hospital by ambulance that she had her stroke, with a clot blocking the blood supply to her brain.

She was put into an induced coma, waking up 10 days later with paralysis on her right side and aphasia, a communication disorder that can also impact memory.

Mrs Coulbert, 37, said it took her three weeks to relearn her date of birth and six months to walk just a few steps.

She said she felt like a “burden” to her family, adding that she was grateful to her husband Chay for looking after her and their three children - Jaxon, Theo and newborn Verity; now aged six, four and two.

“It was heartbreaking, really, as a mother, not being able to support your newborn,” she said.

“My husband had to do everything… he had to source a nanny because he couldn’t look after all three kids and work, and pay for that.”

Charlotte Coulbert said she was left unable to support her newborn baby

Mrs Coulbert, who gave birth to Verity via a planned c-section on 24 May 2022, said she remembered collapsing and gasping for air just weeks later.

“It was terrifying; I was struggling to breathe, and the paramedics kept telling me ‘Charlotte, you have to breathe', until I zoned out completely,” she said.

She would later find out that the clot was caused by a hole in her heart, which she did not know she had.

Charlotte Coulbert described the experience as "terrifying"

After she woke up from her coma at Royal Stoke University Hospital, Mrs Coulbert said she was “devastated” to have missed ten days of her newborn’s life.

“When I woke up and could just see Verity, it was surreal, she’d grown even in that time. I attempted to feed her with a bottle, but I was so weak I couldn’t really do it,” she added.

“It was very difficult for me; strange – I couldn’t believe it really happened, I was still in shock.”

She has since regained much of her strength and says she has been able to carry out chores such as cooking basic meals, loading the dishwasher and doing some washing, and was hoping to return to her career in sales with a walking stick and improved speech.

Mrs Coulbert said she wanted people to be more aware of the signs of a stroke and understand that they did "not just happen to elderly people".