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Important update on 1476AM"How fragile life is": Giving birth changed everything for Mannix
SEN • April 29th, 2026 7:11 pm
Vixens star Emily Mannix has revealed her daughter Mabel is “not out of the woods” but is thriving after a complicated start to life saw her spend a week in neonatal intensive care.
Mabel, 15 months, was born with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck and suffered moderate HIE – oxygen loss to the brain.
Extreme measures were taken in the hours after Mabel's birth that meant Mannix and her partner Ari were uprooted from Geelong to the Royal Women’s as their daughter underwent cooling treatment in a bid to prevent brain damage.
Told her daughter may never attend a regular school, spend her life in a wheelchair, have a low IQ or possibly a limp, Mannix has shared her experience to help others.
In a revealing interview with Centre Court she gave an update on her daughter’s condition.
“I had all these concerns for how things could turn out for her,” she said. “Whether she would be in a wheelchair or have a low IQ, I will support her no matter what. You want a healthy baby and happy baby and at the start it wasn’t looking like that would be the case.
“We still have regular check ins with the paediatrician. We’re still not out of the woods in terms of her development. Time will tell, but for now she is doing incredibly well. She’s really special.
“We couldn’t hear anything, no crying (when Mabel was born) and that’s not a good thing when you’ve had a baby. I looked over and 10 plus nurses were around her in the room. They came over and told he we had a girl then pushed her over to show us and took her out.
"Half an hour later the consultant came in and said she had come out with the cord around her neck really tight twice. It had cut off her air supply for too long.
"It was wild, all the stress and anxiety and not knowing if she would survive.
"They took her to the Royal Women’s where they could cool her down to 33 degrees to stop any further brain damage. It was a waiting game for 72 hours.
"People go through this on a daily basis. It reminds you how fragile life is."
