A ‘totally healthy’ woman who died just hours after giving birth to a baby boy had ‘dreamed of being a mother her entire life’, her heartbroken family have revealed.
Emily Lockley suffered a suspected pulmonary aneurysm which damage her heart while in labour and despite medics’ best efforts to resuscitate the new mother, she died just four hours after baby Harley was delivered.
The tragedy has left the healthy baby, who was born on February 6 weighing 8lb 1oz, motherless, with his father Tyler Collinson, 27, having to raise the child alongside his partner’s grieving family.
Remembering her older sister, Chloe Stokes, 24, revealed that the death – which happened a day after her 26th birthday – was a ‘complete shock, as Emily had a perfectly normal pregnancy’.
A fundraiser to help support little Harley and fund the funeral of Ms Lockley, who the family called ‘The Little Dancing Queen, as she loved ABBA’, has now raised over £12,000.
Emily Lockley, 26, suffered a suspected pulmonary aneurysm which damage her heart while in labour
![The young woman had been taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital on the night of her 26th birthday. Tragically she died just four hours after giving birth](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/21/02/81515045-13106945-image-a-49_1708481206532.jpg)
The young woman had been taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital on the night of her 26th birthday. Tragically she died just four hours after giving birth
Ms Lockley and her partner had been living at her family home in Stoke-on-Trent, with her mother Tracey Wootton, 46, step-father Mark Wootton, 57 and step-brother Kieran Wootton, 17.
Mrs Wootton vowed to look after her eldest daughter’s ‘gorgeous boy Harley’ adding that the family ‘will pass on your love that you will be sending from heaven’.
Harley and his father are still living at the Wootton’s home as he continues to navigate parenthood without his beloved partner.
He said: ‘We were both so excited to become parents and Emily helped give me so much faith in myself that I was going to do the best job as a dad. She was so supportive and prepared, I was in awe.
‘I felt like the luckiest man in the world that she chose to go through life with me. She was one in a million.’
The expecting mother’s social media pages were filled with posts about her excitement for becoming a parent.
One photo shared just months showed Ms Lockley beaming into the camera and holding onto her baby bump, captioned ‘in my mummy era’.
Other posts show pictures from her gender reveal party and sonograms of her ‘lil bubs’.
Announcing her pregnancy in August, excited Ms Lockley wrote: ‘Something exciting is making us glad, we’re changing our names to mum and dad. Baby Collinson due February 2024.’
![The young woman's family said she had always dreamed of becoming a mother and wanted two or three children](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/21/02/81515051-13106945-image-m-51_1708481270289.jpg)
The young woman’s family said she had always dreamed of becoming a mother and wanted two or three children
Speaking after her death, her sister said that Ms Lockley had ‘dreamed of being a mum and would have wanted two or three babies if she could have’.
Ms Lockley went into labour on February 5 – her birthday – and was taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital with her mother and partner, where she was kept overnight.
A decision was made to induce her as 12am on February 6. She became very sleepy and all of a sudden ‘took a really deep breath and collapsed’.
Her sister Miss Stokes told the Mirror: ‘The doctors rushed her into theatre and got Harley out. Harley was born at 7.56am and just after 12pm the doctors told us Emily had passed. They tried to resuscitate her a couple of times, but they couldn’t.’
‘As far as we knew, she had nothing wrong with her,’ her younger sister said. ‘Emily loved running and regularly went on runs with Tyler. She did a half marathon a couple of years ago.’
An exact cause of death is yet to be determined by the hospital but her family were told by doctors it was thought to have been caused by a ‘pulmonary aneurysm’.
Despite the horrific situation, the family have remained grateful to the neo-natal unit that helped keep Harley safe.
Miss Stokes added: ‘Harley’s the absolute spit of Emily. He’s got her big blue eyes, he’s got her nose – his whole face is Emily. He would have loved her.’
A tribute on a GoFundMe Page for Ms Lockley added: ‘Emily was a 26 year old woman, who dreamed to be a mother her entire life. Emily kept her little boy so safe and spoke daily about how excited she was to finally have her dream life.’
MailOnline has contacted the Royal Stoke University Hospital for comment.
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