COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Nov. 12, 2026 — Asha Nayomi Weerawardhana, the Sri Lankan YouTube and TikTok creator known to her followers as Nayomichan, died in Japan during childbirth after amniotic fluid entered her bloodstream, her younger sister said, citing the post-mortem examination and the death certificate. She was 33. Her son, delivered during the emergency, survived and is recovering.
Her sister, Ayesha Weerawardhana, a student in Japan, described what happened in a video posted on Facebook. She said her sister suffered a severe reaction during labour that left doctors unable to stop the bleeding. Doctors placed her under general anaesthesia, delivered the baby, and tried for several hours to resuscitate her. Her pulse returned twice, but she did not survive.
The post-mortem and death certificate found that fluid from the amniotic sac had entered her blood vessels and stopped her heart, the sister said. The condition she described matches what doctors call amniotic fluid embolism, a rare, life-threatening complication of childbirth that doctors cannot predict or prevent.
News of her death spread on social media on the night of Tuesday, 10 November, three days after she posted a video of herself shopping for baby items with her husband.
Her final rites will be held in Japan according to Japanese custom on Monday, 16 November, and only immediate family will attend, the sister said. Her body will not be brought to Sri Lanka. The sister said her brother-in-law had decided to hold the rites in Japan and that she would attend on the family’s behalf. The family has arranged a seven-day almsgiving and sermon in Sri Lanka.
Before the family spoke, Facebook pages and gossip websites circulated unverified claims that she had died of a reaction to a vaccine or medicine, or of an overdose. The sister asked the public not to believe them and urged followers to report the pages spreading them. She said she did not know every detail of how her sister reached the hospital, and she asked people not to post speculation for attention. Doctors liken the body’s response in amniotic fluid embolism to a severe allergic reaction, which may account for early claims that she died of an allergy.
The sister also warned the public not to give money to anyone collecting funds in her sister’s name without the family’s knowledge, and said the family had no connection with any such appeal.
In a statement on Wednesday, Saroja Savithri Paulraj, the minister of women and child affairs, offered her condolences. She said Weerawardhana had used her social media following to influence society for the better, particularly women, girls and young people, and had used her platform to raise awareness of social issues rather than to seek fame. The minister recalled a video in which Weerawardhana spoke about women’s safety and society’s responsibility to protect women.
Weerawardhana lived in Japan with her Japanese husband. She graduated from Soka University in Japan in 2022 and later worked for Amazon there. Her videos, made mainly for a Sinhala-speaking audience, followed the couple’s life together, her Sri Lankan and Japanese home cooking and her experience as a student, and offered practical advice to Sri Lankans hoping to study in Japan on visas, living costs and combining work with education. Her YouTube channel describes its content as videos from a Sri Lankan who fell in love with Japan. It had about 14,000 subscribers, her Instagram account had more than 9,000 followers, and she also had a large following on TikTok.
The name Nayomichan joins her given name with “chan,” an affectionate suffix Japanese speakers attach to the names of close friends, children and loved ones. Her husband appears in her videos as Keichan.
Among the condolences posted under the sister’s announcement was one from Venerable Gotami, a prominent Buddhist nun. “I knew her as a good, innocent girl,” she wrote.
What Is Amniotic Fluid Embolism?
Ayesha Weerawardhana’s description of her sister’s death, in which fluid from the amniotic sac entered the bloodstream and stopped the heart, matches a rare condition that doctors call amniotic fluid embolism. The family has not said whether the death certificate uses that term.
What happens in the body
A baby develops inside a fluid-filled sac in the womb. During labour or delivery, some of that fluid, along with cells and other material from the baby, can pass into the mother’s bloodstream. Doctors believe this happens in many births without causing harm. Why a very small number of women have a life-threatening reaction to it is not known.
Despite its name, the condition does not involve a blockage. Amniotic fluid dissolves in blood and does not obstruct vessels the way a clot does. Doctors now believe the fluid sets off an overwhelming immune and inflammatory response similar to a severe allergic reaction, and some specialists call the condition anaphylactoid syndrome of pregnancy.
The effects come quickly. Oxygen levels fall sharply as the lungs fail, blood pressure collapses and the heart may stop. In many women the blood then loses its ability to clot, causing heavy bleeding that is very difficult to control. Some women experience sudden anxiety, agitation, confusion or a sense of doom shortly before they collapse. Japanese researchers have also described a form centred on the womb, in which the main sign is massive bleeding after delivery.
How common and how deadly
The condition is rare. A nine-year national study in Britain found about 1.7 cases for every 100,000 births, or roughly one in 60,000. Studies in other high-income countries have recorded rates of up to about six per 100,000. Most cases occur during labour. The rest occur during a caesarean section or shortly after a vaginal birth.
It is among the deadliest emergencies in obstetrics. In the British study, about one in five affected women died, and some survivors were left with permanent brain injury. Across studies, the proportion of women who die has ranged from about one in 10 to nearly half, depending on how cases were counted.
In Japan, amniotic fluid embolism is among the leading causes of maternal death. A review of 16 years of autopsy records of women who died in pregnancy or childbirth found it to be the most common cause, accounting for about a quarter of deaths. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health lists it among the rare emergencies that can occur during and after delivery.
Who is at risk
Studies have associated the condition with older maternal age, induction of labour, twin or multiple pregnancies, a low-lying placenta, caesarean or instrument-assisted delivery, early separation of the placenta, pre-eclampsia and excess amniotic fluid. The associations are weak. Most women with these factors never develop the condition, and many who do have none of them. The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the United States has said that no risk factor is established firmly enough to justify any change in standard obstetric care.
Can it be prevented?
There is no known way to prevent amniotic fluid embolism or to predict who will develop it, and no test can detect it in advance. Doctors diagnose it from the pattern of sudden collapse after ruling out other causes. Medical authorities stress that it is not caused by anything a mother did or failed to do during pregnancy.
How doctors respond
There is no specific treatment, and survival depends largely on the speed of the medical response. Guidelines call for immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation, delivery of the baby at once if the mother’s heart stops after 23 weeks of pregnancy, breathing support with a tube and ventilator, drugs to sustain the heart and blood pressure, and large transfusions of blood, plasma and clotting products to control bleeding. Some women need an emergency hysterectomy. Because many doctors and midwives never encounter a case, specialist bodies recommend that hospitals keep a step-by-step emergency checklist and rehearse it.
What families can do
Since the condition cannot be prevented, doctors’ general advice for pregnancy applies. Women are advised to attend antenatal check-ups, inform their doctors of any medical conditions and plan to give birth in a hospital with an anaesthetist, a blood bank and intensive care. Sudden breathlessness, confusion, panic or heavy bleeding during labour or in the hours after birth should be reported to staff at once.
The baby
When a mother collapses before giving birth, the baby can be deprived of oxygen, and many such babies need intensive care. Rapid delivery gives the baby the best chance of survival, and most survive.
