A PREGNANT mum is lucky to be alive after accidentally stabbing herself in the neck in a freak accident.

Ashlee Shier, 29, of Beeliar, Western Australia, was cutting up fruit for her son Landon, six, and daughter Aria, three, when she slipped on her pet dog's bowl.

As she fell to the floor she accidentally plunged the knife she was using into her throat while trying to protect her bump.

When her partner Troy, 32, walked into the kitchen, he found his seven months pregnant girlfriend making a "horrible gurgling noise" when she tried to talk and sprang into action.

He created a tourniquet using a tea towel and called an ambulance. Ashlee believes it was Troy's quick thinking that saved her - and their unborn child's - life.

Recalling the harrowing incident, she told FEMAIL: "So I've brought my hands up as I've fallen to the ground, forgetting I still had the knife in my hand.

"At that point I didn't realise that it had stabbed itself straight into my neck. I thought I may have just cut it or something small but I felt wetness on my neck."

She said Troy went very pale when he saw her and she started to freak out as her chest began to feel tight.

While in the ambulance Ashlee said her blood pressure started to drop and she was coughing up blood.

At this stage paramedics weren't sure of the extent of damage to her windpipe.

Ashlee said it felt like everything was moving in slow motion as she arrived at hospital and was taken to the trauma unit.

Her clothes were cut off and she was surrounded by doctors before being rushed to surgery for a tracheotomy.

Ashlee said her "heart sank" when medics told her they might need to deliver the baby if she or the 31-week-old foetus were at risk.

"After having two previous preterm babies I just wanted the best for my daughter," she said.

When she came round from the surgery Ashlee instinctively reached for her belly - and was relieved when it still felt "full and pregnant".

She broke down in tears when her family arrived, and admitted: "I just wanted to thank my partner and tell my kids and him I loved them."

Ashlee was unable to speak initially and communicated with them using handwritten notes. After a week her breathing tubes were removed, but she could still only muster a low, faint murmur.

The ordeal left Ashlee with a scar, but her voice has now returned - and her daughter Lilly Mae arrived four weeks after.

Earlier this month we reported how a mum wants £2.8million compensation after an accident "left her too tired to look after her kids".