Right after giving birth to her son, James, new mama Joanne Mackie started finding blisters on her arms and legs. A few days later, she winced whenever anything touched the painful rash and the tiny blisters that had blossomed into painful welts. Joanne was in such agony she could no longer hold her baby and daddy took over. The new mother was stumped, but a trip to the doctor was even more baffling. Joanne was allergic to her baby. The 28-year-old mother suffers from a rare but painful and dangerous skin disease, Pemphigoid Gestationis.Joanne is one of the reportedly 1 in 50,000 women who contract this disease during pregnancy, when antibodies form that harm normal body proteins. Basically, after baby James was breastfed once—poof!—blisters appeared that were so bad Joanne had to wrap her limbs in cloth. Not only was Joanne suffering from the pain, she couldn’t touch her newborn son. Fortunately, Joanne has started taking a strong dose of steroids and can now experience the new baby bliss. Joanne now says that she never wants to let her baby go. Let’s see what James thinks of that when he’s 18. [Daily Mail]
