I didn’t know I was pregnant until I saw my baby’s head
THESE three women showed off slim, toned figures on nights out in skintight outfits – none of them realising they were heavily pregnant at the time.
With no weight gain, back ache or unusual food cravings, their symptomless state is known in the medical profession as “cryptic pregnancy” and it affects one in 450 mums-to-be.
Here, they tell NIKKI WATKINS how they didn’t know they were expecting . . . until they were about to give birth.
‘I partied in my size 8 dress’
CHARLOTTE THOMSON slipped her size 8 figure into a skintight dress for a big night out with workmates. Just seven days later she was admitted to hospital where a doctor told her she was in labour.
Her surprise baby Molly, now 14 months old, was born three hours later. Charlotte, from Newcastle upon Tyne, says: “I’d always had regular periods and a flat stomach. I’d been out drinking every weekend and had no symptoms at all.
“I just couldn’t believe I’d carried a baby for the full nine months. Thank goodness she was healthy.”
Charlotte couldn’t wait to hit the town at her work Christmas party on November 28, 2015.
She says: “I remember someone saying, ‘I wish my waist was as tiny as yours’. I partied the night away until 4am and just a week later I woke up with stomach cramps.
“Then I noticed bleeding and went to Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital and a doctor said I was in labour.
“The doctor told me there was a chance the baby had been ‘positioned in my back’, meaning no bump had been visible.”
Charlotte’s mum Lynne, a cleaner, arrived to comfort her daughter – who had broken up with the tot’s father – just as the baby began to arrive.
Molly was born healthy, weighing 6lb 15oz.
Charlotte says: “As soon as I looked at Molly, I fell completely in love.
“Obviously, I had nothing I needed for bringing a baby home. But my parents went out and bought everything.
“I have had comments from people saying I must have known I was pregnant but I honestly had no idea.”
‘I was sent home from work with cramps’
KLARA DOLLAN was at home preparing for her first day in a new job on February 1 last year when she suddenly got stomach cramps.
She went to work anyway but was sent home – and 11 hours after the pains had begun, she gave birth in her bathroom to a baby girl.
She was on the Pill and her size 12 figure had given no clue she was pregnant.
Klara, of Cricklewood, North West London, says: “I can’t imagine life without her. But giving birth was a complete surprise. I’d put on a couple of stone, but I was used to my weight fluctuating.
“I was still able to wear the fitted clothes I wanted. I have a photo of myself in a bodycon dress at seven months pregnant, and you wouldn’t know it.”
She was also used to not having periods because she was constantly on the Pill.
I called my mum from hospital and she said, ‘I saw you this morning and you weren’t pregnant’
When she got home that day from her new marketing job in central London she had an urgent need to use the bathroom and recalls: “I realised I was bleeding and screamed for help. A neighbour rushed in as I gave birth. My neighbour was as shocked as me.
“I grabbed a towel and wrapped her up in it. Paramedics rushed us to hospital and we were given a clean bill of health.
“I called my mum from hospital, and she said, ‘I saw you this morning and you weren’t pregnant’.”
Now a full-time mum, Klara believes her Pill had stopped working during a bout of sickness.
The father was Kris, her by-then ex-boyfriend, whom she had been with for two-and-a-half years.
She says: “I called Kris and he thought I was joking at first but has been very supportive.
“Amelia is the best thing ever to happen to me, despite the surprise.”
‘My GP blamed a bowel block’
DANCING the nights away in clubs every weekend, Hayleigh Gettings was a dedicated party girl.
But just five weeks after celebrating her 21st birthday with a boozy bash, the gym instructor gave birth to a healthy 5lb 3oz baby girl, Layla.
Hayleigh, from Consett, Co Durham, went to the doctor with her mum after waking one morning with a pain in her stomach.
She recalls: “He thought I had blocked bowels, then made me do a pregnancy test. We were all so surprised when it was positive.
“I couldn’t believe it when I was told I was almost 39 weeks pregnant – nearly full term – and six centimetres dilated.
“I was terrified, and shocked that I hadn’t noticed I was pregnant.
“But I’d never had regular periods, hadn’t put on any weight, had been drinking throughout the nine months and had taken hardcore abdominal and spinning classes and boot camps.
“My now ex-boyfriend David* was in the Army and Mum phoned him. He rushed to hospital and made it just in time to see his daughter being born.
“Holding her for the first time was weird, but now she is my world.”
*Name has been changed
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Previously, we told of a mum who was convinced she wasn’t pregnant after multiple negative tests – but later gave birth on the toilet.