Made in Chelsea star begins treatment to have second child after near-fatal experience

Louise Thompson has revealed she has commenced fertility treatment in her bid to have a second child. The former Made In Chelsea star, 35, endured a near-fatal experience during the birth of her son, Leo, in November 2021, which subsequently led to her suffering from PTSD.

Despite the challenges, Thompson and her partner, Ryan Libbey, now feel prepared to expand their family, with Thompson confirming she has started injections to aid her fertility. Writing on her Substack in a post titled "All I want for 2026… is a baby!", she shared her long-held desire.

"The truth is, I’ve sat on this desire to expand our family for a long time. It’s not a 2026 – let’s chuck a whole bunch of stuff on my Pinterest board and hope for the best kind of goal! It’s been on my periphery for as long as I can remember," she wrote.

"I’ve always wanted to have kids. I actually wanted to have a big family, which meant a lot of kids. Ryan and I both feel very fortunate to be best friends with our siblings, so it felt like an obvious choice to have more of them. I never put myself in the one-and-done camp. But then … I got sick. And then there has been this glaringly obvious delay in the family-building department."

Thompson’s traumatic first birth involved an emergency caesarean section after Leo’s head became wedged in her pelvis. An NHS medical team operated for three hours to stop a haemorrhage while she was awake, not under general anaesthetic. This ordeal contributed to PTSD episodes that left her screaming and paralysed in bed.

Her health struggles continued with a total colectomy to remove her colon, resulting in a stoma bag, due to chronic bowel conditions including ulcerative colitis and lupus, which causes exhaustion and joint pain.

While Thompson stated she had "good fertility" before Leo’s birth, she did not have a period for a year afterwards. Subsequent surgeries revealed her uterus was glued together by scar tissue, and she was diagnosed with hydrosalpinx, a condition where a fallopian tube becomes blocked and swells with fluid.

Thompson also disclosed that she joined a surrogacy Facebook group two years ago, though she did not confirm if she is actively considering this path.

She concluded her post by saying: "I’d love to continue throwing words onto the page because I have a million things jumping into my head, and so much knowledge to share re: what we’re actually doing/what we’ve already tried but my phone alarm has just gone off signalling that I need to go and take 187.5ml of menopur, so I’ll have to save those updates for next time." Menopur is a prescription fertility medication designed to stimulate follicles in the ovaries.

Thompson documented her health journey in her book, Lucky, published in 2024.