Pregnant and She didn't even know it.

Not to long ago on the Discovery Health Channel, I saw a report that I didn’t even think was possible and yet, it is more common, than most people would think. The report was on women, who didn’t realize they were pregnant till the day their babies were born. Some of these women still menstruated and didn’t really have many of the symptoms normally associated with pregnancy.

In a report in Psychology Today Magazine, titled “Unexpectedly Expecting” it is reported that a number of women have what is termed as “denial of pregnancy” this is a mysterious and rare condition, where the woman doesn’t realize she is pregnant until five months into gestation. This condition occurs in one of 200-600 deliveries. Most women that have gone through this are normally between eighteen and twenty nine. It is not very common, but it does make one wonder, how could she not know?

I would like to share some true life stories of women, who discovered they were pregnant on their baby’s birthday, or in their third trimester. Many of the fathers, in these cases, were just as surprised as the mothers were. These women have some amazing stories to tell; here are some very interesting accounts, on how they suddenly found out they were pregnant.

The first story is about a woman who was even on birth control pills and other forms of contraceptives and yet, surprise, surprise she finds out she is pregnant twelve hours before giving birth. She had no reason to suspect she was pregnant, since she still had her regular periods. However, one Sunday morning she was experiencing a lot of pain and was unable to walk. She arrived at the hospital and there she learned she was seven months pregnant and gave birth twelve hours later.

In another report, a woman's home pregnancy test came out negative when her pregnancy began, and she also kept menstruating normally. When her doctor checked her, she was already five months along, yet he didn’t have her tested for pregnancy and therefore, it still wasn’t discovered that she was pregnant. Then a short time later, she was experiencing severe back pain and she was taken to emergency by her aunt. Even at that point, the doctors ruled out, pregnancy, they then had to change their diagnoses when they discovered the baby crowning.

In this last case, what amazes me is that trained medical professionals did not suspect that this woman was pregnant till the baby was crowning. It makes me realize how important it is for medical professionals to test a woman thoroughly and not rule out pregnancy, till they have tests to prove it. This not only puts the woman at risk, but the baby at risk as well.

This next story, I found a little hard to believe, because the weight gain in this case was so erratic. Let just say, this one of those cases, where I can definitely say that truth is stranger than fiction. This woman reports that she was six months pregnant when she finally realized she was pregnant. When she started her pregnancy she weighed 104 pounds and then suddenly in two weeks time, during her sixth month of pregnancy her weight jumped to 167 pounds and her belly got huge. I find it hard to understand, how anyone can suddenly gain sixty three pounds in two weeks, when she was already pregnant for six months. She reports that if it wasn’t for this sudden weight gain, she would not have known till it came time to give birth. Strange?

I would like to leave you with one last story about Ryan and Carri Emmons, a couple that had a very interesting night, and a new baby boy. She already had three other children, yet both her and her husband didn’t know she was expecting again. Then suddenly, one night Carri was experiencing some very painful cramps and the cramps got more and more painful, resulting in her husband having to call 911 for an ambulance. During the call Ryan told the dispatcher that he saw blood everywhere. Then suddenly, he tells the dispatcher he sees a baby and he sounded very surprised. This was also the dispatcher’s first night on the job, but she was able to pull him through.

If you would like to know more about what happened that night. Here is a link to Ryan and Carri Emmons Story. The article (in this link) also contains a video version of what happened to Ryan and Carri Emmons and how the news was received by those in their community.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/michigan-mom-gave-birth-unaware-pregnant/story?id=9531970

To me, as well as many others, this is one of life’s greatest enigmas. Pregnancy which seems so obvious to everyone, especially for the woman who are expecting, and yet, there are times when the new baby is a surprise, even for the mother to be.