BBC Strictly Come Dancing's Dr Punam Krishan's harrowing diagnosis with 'mess of a body'

Strictly Come Dancing star Dr Punam Krishan was left with PTSD and is still haunted by her distressing experience in hospital when she ended up in intensive care

Strictly star and TV doctor Punam Krishan experienced "unbearable pain" and was left "vulnerable" and "fearful" from a medical procedure that she has needed cognitive behavioural therapy to recover from, but which still brings her to tears.

Dr Punam Krishan is one of the 15 celebrities taking part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. Admitting she is “so out of my comfort zone” in the ballroom, Punam is more used to treating and advising patients as a practising GP and Morning Live expert. The married mother of two is also an outspoken advocate for the NHS and its patients. It was just over 11 years ago that she found herself on the other side of the stethoscope as she went into labour with her first baby. What she thought would be an uncomplicated birth became anything but and she ended up in a serious condition in intensive care.

Complications arose during the labour for her and the baby and she has shared the terror she experienced at the time. Writing for inews she explained: "The labour was long and took a worrying turn. I was bleeding, the baby’s heart rate began fluctuating dangerously and the pain became unbearable.

"When I asked for help, I was informed it was staff changeover time and I had to wait to be seen by a midwife. I’ll never forget the vulnerability, anxiety and fear I felt, because not only did I have the medical knowledge to know that the symptoms I was experiencing were abnormal, but I was also panicking as a mother."

When her husband, fellow GP and Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament, Sandesh Gulhane, went for help, a locum doctor arrived after a panicked midwife called for him. But things only got worse and Punam ended up in intensive care. "My baby was born needing paediatric intervention and I ended up in theatre," she wrote earlier this year. "Having lost a significant amount of blood. I required urgent surgery and was suffering from anaphylaxis and sepsis. I was unconscious and ended up intubated in intensive care, only to wake up days later attached to various machines, away from my baby and with a mess of a body."

A week later she was discharged from hospital but she says, without any explanation of what had happened or any follow up. "I was broken. I suffered severe postnatal depression and PTSD, for which I required antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy. Even now when I remember that day, the tears just flow," she revealed.

Punam did go on to have another child but said the trauma - with the word feeling "like an understatement" - of her first childbirth experience made her fearful to have another baby. She now tries to make sure all of her new mums get the aftercare and support they need and believes there needs to be a cohesive national strategy for maternity care. She backed the publishing of the Birth Trauma Inquiry Report in May which recommends ways to recruit and retrain midwives so there are safe levels in hospitals and to support the choices of mothers.

The Birth Trauma Association supports mothers and their families who have experienced traumatic births.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturday evenings on BBC1.