Former Love Island star Olivia Bowen has shared a distressing health update, revealing she called an ambulance to her home this week after developing a severe case of mastitis.
A Painful and Frightening Night
The 30-year-old reality TV personality took to Instagram to explain that she spent Monday night in agony after her breast became hot, swollen, and painful, symptoms indicative of mastitis. This common condition, often linked to a blocked milk duct, typically affects breastfeeding women.
Olivia posted a picture of herself lying in bed, writing that she 'thought I was gonna pass out' from the pain and was awake all night. She credited her existing health anxiety, which intensified after the birth of her daughter Siena five months ago, for causing her to 'spiral' and seek emergency help.
"Ever since Siena's birth I have quite bad health anxiety so I literally spiralled last night," Olivia confessed. She expressed immense gratitude to the paramedics who attended, calling them "angels".
Family Support and Treatment
Olivia also thanked her husband, Alex Bowen, whom she met on the ITV2 dating show in 2016. Alex stayed up with her through the night before going to collect her prescribed antibiotics. The couple also share a three-year-old son, Abel.
"Alex has gone to get my antibiotics bless his heart up all night with me," she wrote. "Even got the kids all awake and ready to get in the car to drive me to A&E."
Alongside antibiotics, Olivia noted that recommended mastitis treatment includes continuing to feed from the affected breast, using cold compresses, and the unconventional remedy of placing frozen cabbage leaves on the area.
Roots of Health Anxiety: A Traumatic Birth
This incident is not the first major health scare Olivia has faced recently. She has been candid about the trauma of 'nearly dying' following Siena's birth in October, which she detailed on her ITV2 show, Olivia & Alex: Parenthood.
After a planned home birth turned complicated, she was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered her bladder had prolapsed into her cervix, blocking the baby. An emergency caesarean section was performed.
The ordeal escalated into a major postpartum haemorrhage. "I felt sick and dizzy, I had to give Siena to Alex as I couldn't hold onto her anymore feeling the blood drain out of me," she recalled. "The doctors were incredible the NHS was amazing, I literally feel that they saved my life."
This follows another heartbreak for the couple earlier this year. In March, Olivia tearfully revealed on Loose Women that they had initially been expecting twins but lost one of the babies to vanishing twin syndrome at eight weeks.
