Vacation shock: Went into labor in a hotel bathroom, unaware she was pregnant

The story sounds almost unbelievable. A family on vacation, when out of the blue, the mom goes into labor—welcoming a new member of the family while far from home.

That’s exactly what happened to 45-year-old Helen Green, an English woman vacationing in Canada with her husband and their 6-year-old daughter, Darcy. Helen suddenly went into labor in the family’s hotel room.

Helen told Bristol Live that she had no idea she was pregnant, which led her to ignore traditional medical orders to avoid flying so far into a pregnancy. The Green family was on a 10-day vacation to Toronto, Canada, when their newest member of the family made their entry into the world.

Luckily for Helen, the birth was quick. Hours before delivering her surprise baby, she began experiencing intense stomach pain and went to the bathroom, thinking it might be a digestive issue.

“After two massive pushes, there was a baby, so I picked her up out of the loo and held her in my arms,” said Helen, describing the bizarre but miraculous scene. Mom and baby were rushed to the hospital, with her husband, Michael, just as shocked as she was.

Bristol Live reported that baby Olivia—named after a nurse at the Toronto hospital—weighed 8 lbs., 3 oz., a healthy size to enter the world. Since Olivia’s arrival was unplanned, the family had to extend their trip to work with the British embassy to secure travel documents for their newest member.

What is a cryptic pregnancy?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, these kinds of experiences are classified as a cryptic pregnancy. In such cases, individuals often don’t notice or report any symptoms of pregnancy, and may even receive false-negative results on pregnancy tests.

The phenomenon is more common than you might think. The Cleveland Clinic reports that about 1 in 2,500 pregnancies go unnoticed until delivery. Even more surprisingly, around 1 in 475 pregnancies aren’t detected until the person is more than halfway through the gestational period.

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