Surprising reason for woman's period pain after eating kebab: 'I was nine months pregnant'
By Merryn Porter |
You know the feeling. You have worked a long day. You're tired. Maybe your back hurts or you've got a tummy ache and all you want to do is go home and relax.
But for one British woman, Jo Bennett, a day like that ended much differently after a trip to the hospital emergency department ended with a surprise baby!
Bennett uploaded a series of videos to her TikTok account over the past month to share her story of "adjusting to life as a mum when I didn't know I was pregnant."
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One video she posted just this week starts with a photo of her in a hospital bed with a grimacing smile.
Across the screen she has written, "Me จC the stomach cramps aren't normal. It can't just be period pain. Hubby จC Maybe you need a big [poo emoji]. Dr จC You're not on your period you're in labour."
A photo of a swaddled baby then flashes onto the screen followed by one of her husband having skin-to-skin contact with the newborn.
In the accompanying post she wrote, "Surprise surprise. Life really does have some funny ways of making all your dreams come true! He is the miracle baby we never knew we needed."
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In another video showing her adorable bub on a change table, she wrote across the screen, "POV. You've worked a full nine-hour shift at work, come home, ate a kebab, and now you're in A & E (accident and emergency) finding out you're going to be a mum in the next few hours, you're in advanced labour when you didn't even know you were pregnant."
She uploaded the video with the comment, "I didn't know I was pregnant. We had just 16 hours notice of Jacob entering the world. Honestly the best gift we could have ever had," and the hashtags #unknownpregnancy #didntknowiwaspregnant #baby and #babyboy.
The woman explained in another video that four hours after eating a kebab she was "in agony with extreme stomach pains [and] incredibly heavy bleeding."
After phoning the hospital and being told she was probably having a miscarriage, she was rushed to emergency via ambulance.
After two hours with doctors "prodding and feeling and poking" she said she was told "you have a full womb." At first, she didn't know what that meant and thought she might have a tumour.
"Turns out that it was a full-term baby, if not an overdue baby," she said. "He was nine pound when he was born."
She said there were no signs or symptoms at all that she was pregnant apart from that day at work when she had back pain, which she put down to sleeping funny. In fact, she was in early labour.
By the time doctors told her she was pregnant she was eight centimetres dilated. The labour progressed quickly after that.
Despite the shock, she is adapting to life as a new mum and said in a recent post, "I might not look it (I'm exhausted) but I'm the luckiest mama in the world," and described son Jacob as "the gift we never knew we needed."
Pregnancies that are not discovered until they are well advanced are known as "cryptic pregnancies" and are not as rare as you would think.
One in 500 women don't discover they are pregnant until the 20-week mark, while the rate of those who don't find out until they are in labour is about one in 2500 women.
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