Mom Found ‘Decomposing’ Forgotten Bandages in Her Vagina 7 Weeks After Giving Birth

For weeks after Alexandra Loredana gave birth to her baby boy, something felt – and smelled – off. The new mom welcomed Dominic in January in 2018, and although she knew it would take time to recover, she worried that something going on down there wasn't a typical part of the postpartum healing experience.

The earliest appointment she could make wasn't until weeks later, on March 7. In the meantime, her midwife took a look at Loredana's stitches and assured the new mom that everything was fine.

Unfortunately, she was seriously wrong.

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Loredana is a first-time mom from England who had been experiencing a "terrible smell" in addition to thrush, "light vaginal wounds," and just an overall uncomfortable feeling in the two months since giving birth. However, she wasn't able to get an early doctor's appointment or convince her midwife to take her concerns seriously, so she remained like many new moms: worried and unsure if this was normal.

'For seven weeks I changed my pads more than 10 times a day,' she told BBC News.

"Whether I had bleeding or not I just wanted my pads to absorb the horrible smell," she added.

But after waiting so many weeks without improvement, Loredana had enough. "Last night I had a bath for the first time and I felt courageous enough to wash with my fingers inside my vagina to clean it," she told BBC News. "I was breathless when I took out a large piece of decomposing material from inside me that smelled horrible and was soaked in blood. How did this happen?"

Loredana immediately went to the emergency room where she delivered her baby.

She was told that they are investigating how bandages could have been left inside a new mom for seven weeks. "We are aware," a Wexham Park Hospital trust spokesman told the BBC at the time, adding that they'd started an investigation into the matter. No update on Loredana's case has been found.