New documentary details Minneapolis family's rare birth complication
Mother’s journey during health scare becomes doc
The journey to motherhood took an unexpected turn for one Minnesota woman when she was hit with a rare health complication. FOX 9’s Maury Glover has the story on how she has since recovered to be able to meet her newborn son.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - For Annie Sterle, becoming a mother was supposed to be a dream come true, but instead, giving birth to her son Henry turned out to be a medical nightmare.
‘Incredibly disorienting’
What we know:
When Sterle's doctors brought her in to the Mother Baby Center at Abbott Northwestern to induce labor back in March 2020, her body had an allergic reaction to her amniotic fluid that caused her to pass out and doctors had to perform an emergency c-section.
She says they were able to deliver Henry, but he was born essentially lifeless and had to be resuscitated, while her heart stopped, and she was in a coma for 17 days.
Her doctors didn't know if she would ever wake up.
"It is one of the most catastrophic, if not the most catastrophic complication of childbirth. It was supposed to be one of the best moments of my life, bringing my first baby into the world. and instead, it was really just terror for everyone in the operating room," said Sterle.
"It was horrible. It was probably the worst day of my life," said Sterle's husband Tony.
‘24 days without you’
The backstory:
Both Annie and Henry made full recoveries.
Their journey is chronicled in a film titled "24 Days Without You," named after the amount of time it took Sterle to meet her son.
She says the hour-long documentary details her family's experience with amniotic fluid embolism and the aftermath of this kind of trauma.
"It's something that we don't understand yet. We can't prevent it. We can't treat it, and we can't predict it," said Sterle.
Operating room to silver screen
What they're saying:
Sterle says making the movie was healing.
She has since given birth to another child, Helena, who is 10 months old.
She hopes other mothers learn from her ordeal that whatever they are going through, they are not alone.
"I hope that people don't feel lonely and isolated in their sadness and their darkest moments and that they have a community that can lift them up," said Sterle.
Dig deeper:
24 Days Without You premiered at the Twin Cities Film Festival last fall.
A pair of screenings will take place at the Edina Mann Theater on March 1.