The Project’s Carrie Bickmore gets emotional over mum’s ‘awful’ birth story

The TV star became emotional during a Project segment detailing a woman’s horror birth, a topic close to Carrie’s heart after her own traumatic labour.

A mum has shared how giving birth left her with major internal trauma in an emotional interview with Carrie Bickmore.

Stellar fashion director Kelly Hume revealed her birth injury was misdiagnosed for four years, leaving her with bowel issues in a segment on The Project set to air on Monday night.

It’s a topic close to Carrie’s heart, with the Gold Logie winner previously revealing she needed counselling following son Ollie’s traumatic birth which saw her suffer a life-threatening haemorrhage.

Kelly, 37, had a “really easy pregnancy”, with doctors telling her the birth of her daughter Beatrice would be pretty straightforward.

“At no stage did any of my care providers say well you’re going to have a really big baby,” she said.

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Carrie Bickmore and Kelly Hume on The Project. Picture: Channel 10.

“But once her head was out, she got stuck. I was in a rural hospital, there was no doctor on site. It was too late to do an episiotomy, so the only option the midwife had was to pull her out. So, between the midwives and my husband, they had to pull her out.”

After the birth Kelly was told she had a third degree tear, which is when the skin between the vagina and anus are torn.

The tear was repaired by a gynaecologist, but Kelly began feeling constantly unwell and “absolutely exhausted”.

“They tested me for leukaemia, then they tested me for auto-immune disease and none of them really fit,” she said.

It was only when Kelly was competing in a ‘Tough Mudder’ style event in April last year that she suddenly felt something very off in the area where she had sustained the tear.

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Carrie nearly died giving birth to her eldest child Ollie. Picture: Instagram/Carrie Bickmore.

Her GP initially said she “probably” had a Bartholin cyst, a fluid-filled swelling that can occur on glands near the opening of the vagina.

But Kelly pressed for a referral from a gynaecologist, who eventually would deliver some devastating news.

“She examined me and she said you don’t have a Bartholin cyst, you never had a Bartholin cyst,” Kelly said.

“You have a five by seven centimetre abscess between your vagina and your rectum that is caused by a fourth degree tear, not a 3C tear, that was incorrectly repaired when you gave birth.”

As a result “faecal matter went where it shouldn’t” and had “grown and grown” to cause an active infection in Kelly’s body for the last four years.

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Carrie was visibly moved by Kelly’s story. Picture: Channel 10.

Kelly has undergone multiple operations to help repair the damage caused by the birth tear. Picture: Channel 10.

A fourth degree tear is the most severe and is when the tears extends beyond the anal sphincter into the mucous membrane that lines the rectum.

In the seven months that followed, Kelly had an operation every six weeks, her last one in December.

The experience has been traumatic, both mentally and physically.

“I thought what is wrong with me?” Kelly said. “You start questioning absolutely every facet in your life because you feel so miserable. But I’m so glad that I stuck through it all.”

Kelly still lives with complications from her traumatic birth but counts herself lucky that she is confident enough not to get embarrassed by it.

“I will literally tell you that I can’t hold a fart in, that’s how awful it is,” she said.

“Obviously I’m confident and happy enough in myself to go, ‘I’m so sorry, I can’t control it, I had a really horrendous birth trauma and there’s nothing I can do’.”

Watch Kelly Hume’s interview with Carrie Bickmore on The Project on Monday night.