It took four surgeons operating at once, alongside a team of theatre staff at Warrington Hospital, to save Adele.

Adele recalls: “I vaguely remember Jasmine being born and then I passed out.

“By this point I’d already lost six litres of blood and it was thought that I’d stabilised.”

But in the recovery room doctors realised she was bleeding internally and that she urgently needed the extra surgery.

Adele told BBC News: “I only realised how close I was to dying, when I was momentarily in the recovery room. I felt sheer panic that I may never see my husband or children again.”

Adele says she remembers crying and saying ‘I think I’m dying’ and telling the theatre staff that she was scared.

She says her husband was told to call their family – including their four other daughters – and tell them come and prepare to say goodbye.

In all, Adele was given 28 units of red blood cells, 20 units of fresh frozen plasma, nine units of cryoprecipitate and eight units of platelets – the biggest transfusion at the hospital since 2000.

A year on, to thank staff and support the Christmas appeal for blood donors, Adele has visited the Liverpool NHS Blood and Transplant regional centre, which sent most of the blood for her care.

Staff laid out the exact number of units of blood products she received, to illustrate how much help she needed.