MP for Rutland and Stamford Alicia Kearns welcomes third child

An MP who suffered from a life-threatening condition during pregnancy has welcomed her third child.

The MP for Rutland and Stamford Alicia Kearns gave birth to a baby daughter on Tuesday last week (April 29).

In a post on social media, she said: “We’re both still in hospital and it’s been a journey, but optimistic our recovery is heading the right way.

“Thank you for all the lovely messages - I’ve been so very touched by your kindness and concern. Thank you so very much.”

Mrs Kearns revealed in her fortnightly column for the Stamford Mercury and LincsOnline that her ‘pregnancy journey had been far from easy’.

She had been diagnosed with placenta previa, where the placenta covers the entirety of the cervix, making a natural birth impossible with a risk of pre-term birth and bleeding, and placenta accreta, where the placenta then attaches too deeply to, and invades, the wall of the uterus and/or bladder.

The condition requires early delivery of the baby by C-section, a hysterectomy as soon as the baby is delivered to manage the significant bleeding because the placenta cannot be separated from the uterus, and blood transfusions.