‘MAFS’ ‘ Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd Recall Daughter Olivia’s ‘Scary’ Birth: We ‘Almost Died’

Danielle Bergman and Bobby Dodd are proud and happy parents to a healthy baby girl, but the beginning of their journey was rocky, to say the least.

The Married at First Sight alums welcomed daughter Olivia Nicole in February of last year, telling PEOPLE at the time that they were “absolutely enamored with” the new arrival and adding, “The second we laid eyes on her, we both knew that she is exactly what we waited our whole lives for.”

To get to that point, though, they endured a harrowing night of unknowns not only about whether Olivia would survive, but also whether Bergman’s life was in danger.

As they gear up to celebrate their daughter’s first birthday next month, Bergman and Dodd tell their respective stories of her arrival into the world below.

Bobby’s Story

The night started at my company’s baby shower for Danielle. She felt fine, looked great and was in good spirits for someone about to pop! After we opened presents, Danielle went back home to take care of the dogs and let the camera crew into the garage so they could store their supplies. I stayed behind to spend some time with my coworkers at the party. When I got home, Danielle was asleep in bed, so I got in bed and fell asleep, too. She woke me up at midnight; all the lights were on and she was in the shower.

I got up to check on her and she was hunched over in the shower and told me that she could not stay warm and could barely stay on her feet. I ran to the garage to get a bucket so she could sit down, but when I got back with the bucket, she told me to call the doctor. The doctor told us to come in, so we grabbed the baby bag and began hauling ass to the hospital about 20 to 25 minutes away. I was panicking with my wife unable to sit still, breathing heavily and wincing in pain. Not gonna lie, I was doing about 80 to 85 mph. I specifically remember a moment we came to the stop light just before the hospital. With the time around 1:30 a.m. and no one on the roads, it seemed the light was in no hurry to turn green … it was like it was stuck or something, so I ran it (after I looked both ways).

I swear when we got into the hospital it was like something out of a movie. No one to be found — like ghost-town quiet. So we rang the bell and waited a good 5-plus minutes just for someone to get to the front desk. We finally get into a room and after about an hour and a half of tests, they decide we are not going home. I think she said, “Well, it looks like you have bought yourself a one-way ticket.”

They decided to move us upstairs to a birth room to induce and see a specialist. I remember Danielle being very groggy pretty much the entire time due to all the meds. She was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, which was explained to be very serious and very rare. I knew things were serious when they were taping towels on the bed in anticipation of a seizure, and in the way they were answering my questions. For one question in particular, “Are they going to be okay?”, I kept getting the same answer: “We are going to do everything we can to make sure both Mom and baby go home.” Not sure I took deep breaths that entire night.

The most difficult moment during the birth was when I stepped out of the room to call Danielle’s mom. When I got out of the room and walked by the front desk, I overheard one of the nurses on the phone. She said, “Yeah, we will just have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” I asked the nurse if she was talking about our room number, and she said that she could not tell me. When I told her that was my wife in that room, she told me that they were ordering a blood transfusion for her.

At that moment, I walked away and proceeded to call Danielle’s mom. It was difficult having this emotional conversation over the phone when I had only met Danielle’s parents two or three times — especially when not knowing if their daughter and granddaughter were going to live.

The rest of the night is a complete blur to me. I was floating around in a bit of shock, hoping that I would be taking my wife and daughter home at the end of all of this. It’s scary knowing that the happiest day of our lives initially was truly the scariest.

Danielle’s Story

I was exactly 39 weeks and had gone to the OB-GYN for a checkup first thing in the morning. I had been dilating since 37 weeks but had stalled at [2 centimeters] from the week before. I was about 70 percent effaced. The nurse made a comment about my blood pressure, which was slightly high for the first time, but my urine sample was fine so they let me go on about my day.

That afternoon, Bobby’s work was throwing me a baby shower and I remember being so tired driving there. We had a great time but now, looking back, this is when I really started feeling symptoms for what happened later. I went into the bathroom multiple times to make myself burp because my chest was starting to burn so bad from what I assumed was heartburn or trapped gas. I decided to head for home a little early so I could lie down. I got in bed with a heating pad, thinking that would break up this gas trapped in my chest that was getting increasingly more painful. At this point, I couldn’t even lie down, so I fell asleep sitting up, waiting for Bobby.

At around midnight, I was in so much pain I decided to get in a hot shower to see if that would help. By the time I got in the shower, I was vomiting so much that I woke up Bobby, who then decided to call the OB-GYN on call. When he explained what I was going through, the doctor said it was highly unlikely this was heartburn and I should probably head in to get checked out to be safe. I remember being so sick but so calm. I was walking around in pajamas with a bowl to barf in while I let the dogs out to pee and gathered up all my hospital bags just in case. I remember Bobby speeding the whole way there and there was no one on the roads. We got to the hospital in record time, but when we got to the delivery ward, there wasn’t a nurse in sight! I was trying not to vomit all over the nurses’ station while Bobby went to find someone. We were finally directed to the ER, where I was admitted.