ITV I'm A Celebrity Oti Mabuse's trauma after daughter's premature birth left her 'at her lowest'

I'm A Celebrity star Oti Mabuse admitted that her first-born's premature birth left her 'at her lowest' as she suffered with 'trauma'. The former Strictly Come Dancing pro, who is currently starring in this year's series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, previously opened up about the aftermath of her daughter's early birth.

The professional dancer, 34, announced she and her husband Marius Lepure had become parents on Christmas Day last year. At the time, the couple took to Instagram to share an adorable photo, where they wore matching festive pyjamas as they gazed down at their baby girl accompanied by their dog, Leo.

It wasn't until later when Oti revealed how their daughter, whose name hasn't been shared publicly, had been born prematurely in October - ten weeks earlier than expected - and she then spent six weeks in neonatal intensive care.

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In October 2024, a year after giving birth, Oti shared details about her experience for the first time and admitted the 'trauma' that followed.

"The pregnancy itself was beautiful, it was amazing but I had a spontaneous birth where we were going shopping and my waters just broke in the middle of the street," she told life coach Paul Carrick Brunson on his podcast, We Need To Talk.

"Because I didn't have any experience of birth it didn't seem traumatic at the time. Afterwards I felt that was intense. And when you look at milestones of premature babies, I have to be very, very understanding. The trauma came after."

In the joint interview with her husband, Oti also admitted she finds it hard not to blame herself for the premature birth and was full of praise for the nursing team at London’s University College Hospital for saving their baby.

"They are absolutely brilliant," she said. "Those nurses deal with babies this size, with organs that are this tiny. They give them such beautiful care. They are protecting them."

Oti confirmed how their Christmas Day announcement came just 24 hours after they left the hospital, six weeks after their little girl's birth. She explained: "The baby was sick. She couldn’t breathe on her own, she couldn’t eat on her own. She was really small. We couldn't hold her. That was incredibly, incredibly tough."

"I was just like, ‘This is horrible. How can in this world, this beautiful thing - Christmas - happen?’. I cried for an hour. You’ve just given birth, postpartum is tough, so I still had all those hormones… It was really, really tough. I was at my lowest."

Earlier this month, ahead of World Prematurity Day, Oti spoke to Lauren Taylor about giving birth at 28 weeks and how motherhood has changed her. She said a year of motherhood has made her “more aware, more resilient, more sensitive” and “added a level of maturity”.

Speaking about her pregnancy she said: “I was still working, I was told everything was great, the baby is great. She had turned upside down. Her head was in the right place…”.

Their daughter was born at 28 weeks and weighed less than 3lbs – but Oti says she felt reassured everything would be fine, despite being diagnosed with sepsis herself. The baby was taken immediately for tests and placed in an incubator – her parents weren’t able to hold her for a week.

“There’s so much awareness about birth, but there’s not much conversation going around the process of prematurity, of maybe your child can come at any time,” she said.

Despite being unprepared, she said: “I actually really enjoyed giving birth. We were singing musical tunes. I was singing through the pain, singing all the tunes that I love. Birth for me was just such a beautiful thing, a rite of passage for something that I wanted to personally achieve.”

And she felt reassured by doctors that her daughter would be fine, although it would be “a long journey”. She says: “The whole team and the midwife team and the consultants were there every step of the way, they were so communicative, they were so gentle with what they said. They tell you to be patient, because everything takes time – good things take time.”

Seeing her daughter in the NICU, Mabuse had “an overwhelming feeling of love, protectiveness and pride”. She said: “I saw her and I just felt like, there’s my baby. She’s a strong little girl, this is tough and scary right now for her because she’s not in the womb anymore, but she’s safe and she’s going to be OK.”

Every day Oti would sit beside her daughter’s incubator. She said: “I didn’t want to leave the unit at all. I’d be the first one there and the last one to leave,” she says. “It’s one of those things that people don’t know about. You don’t expect it to be so intense.

“[Premature babies] still have to learn a few things, like blinking, swallowing and sucking – all those things they would learn in the tummy, but in the incubator, so you need to slowly teach them how to do them from scratch. They’re also eating through feeding tubes.

“I breastfed her the whole time. I did it because I wanted to, but I don’t want other mums to feel pressure because it’s difficult – I have so many friends who are like, my body did not produce it, and it’s not their fault. And the baby has to eat, so fed is best.”

After six long weeks, she was able to take her baby home. “It was the best feeling every, we made it in time for Christmas and felt like our Christmas gift – we will never forget the day we brought her home and we were in the car, my husband and I were so nervous. She was so tiny.”