A WOMAN has shared how she gave birth after working a shift at a nightclub, but had no idea she was pregnant as she didn’t put on any weight and boozed throughout the time she was expecting.
Sally Smith, 23, is now mum to one-year-old son Gabriel, known as Gabe, but only found out she was pregnant when she went into labour.
Describing giving birth as the “most surreal experience”, Sally explained that she hadn’t felt like anything was “out of the ordinary” as she was using contraception and was still having periods while pregnant.
No bump in sight, Sally says she didn’t put on any weight and stayed a size 10 the whole time, during which she continued to drink on nights out and partied at five different festivals including Parklife and Glastonbury.
Her friends had joked that she was pregnant after Sally would get sick after having a drink at work, but without any tell-tale signs, she simply brushed off the idea.
“If I had a drink after work I was always sick and people would joke that I was pregnant and I’d be like ‘if I was pregnant, I’d be eight months pregnant now’ – that was kind of the running joke at work for a while,” she admitted.
Sally says she had “really bad back pain” when she would have been seven to eight months pregnant, but again she passed it off as just an ache from moving heavy deliveries at work.
”Everything had an answer for – there was nothing out of the ordinary,” she insists, adding that it was when she was seen by a paramedic, who could see the baby’s head, that she realised she was about to become a mum.
In March last year, Sally had been working and fell asleep after her shift, but woke up with what she thought was intense stomach cramps.
Phoning her sister for advice, Sally then got into the bath and that’s when she thinks her waters must have broken.
Paramedics arrived at her home to take her to hospital, with the mum recalling: “[The paramedic] walked in and I was lying on the floor and she said ‘well, we can see a head, you’re definitely having a baby’.
”That’s when I was kind of like ‘ok’… we got in the ambulance and we could already see his head and as we were pulling up to the hospital, that’s where I gave birth.”
At first, she remembers freaking out over becoming a mum, but says any doubts or concerns she had soon vanished when she held her son for the first time.
Sally, who finished uni months before giving birth, says: “When I was giving birth I remember thinking ‘well I can’t have a baby, I’m 23, I’ve just been promoted so how am I meant to look after a baby when I work such long hours?’
“As soon as they put him on my chest I was alright because he was there and completely fine. I was just so calm.
“Not to sound corny but I was just completely in love. I was like ‘right I’m fine, I’ll be able to do it because he’s here,’ I was filled with love and totally obsessed with him from the start.”
Shortly after welcoming her son Gabe, Sally says lockdown hit and while her family were super supportive over her new arrival, many of her friends were shocked to hear she’d had a baby.
As well as telling her pals, Sally had to tell her ex-boyfriend, Gabe’s father, that she’d had his baby.
The pair had dated at uni but split in in July 2019 – eight months prior to Sally giving birth.
Initially she text him asking for him to ring her and broke the news over the phone, but says her ex was “really supportive”.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gabe’s dad wasn’t able to meet him for the first few months and Sally admits it was difficult having to deal with a newborn.
Pushing through it, she says that having Gabe is the “best thing” that has ever happened to her.
“He’s just the cheekiest little lad in the world and is so funny,” she gushes.
“Just the loveliest little lad, he’s just such a dream.”
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