A MUM who thought her stomach cramps were caused by a ‘dodgy chicken takeaway’ while camping was shocked to discover she was actually in labour.
Zoe Doyle said she had ‘no pregnancy symptoms‘ so was stunned when her husband, Stuart Doyle, spotted a baby coming out.
The pair welcomed Hayley Doyle, weighing 8lbs 14oz – named after her place of birth Hayling Island in Hamsphire.
The family, including children Poppy Ansell, 13, and Jake Doyle, one, had been on their camping holiday for a few days before Zoe woke up at around 5am on August 1.
Recalling the events, nursery work practitioner Zoe, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, said: “I woke up and thought that chicken we had the night before has really upset my stomach.
“I couldn’t get to the main toilets and we have a little Portaloo toilet in the tent and I just stayed there.
“I thought it was just tummy pains but it kept getting worse and worse. I knew something wasn’t right. There was so much blood, I thought I was having a miscarriage.
“Little did I know I was doing all the contractions on my own on the portaloo. I just stood up and my husband asked if I was okay and I said ‘I need to push’ then I leaned on all fours and my husband saw a head.”
The flabbergasted dad delivered the couple’s surprise baby in the living room area of the tent before rushing to hospital.
Zoe said: “He had to help deliver her in the tent and cut her umbilical cord in the tent and wrap her up with what we had.
“I did it all on my own. I felt like Mother Mary giving birth outdoors. It was just so bizarre.
“She literally came out and I remember thinking ‘what has just happened’. I was thinking how did I not know? Everything I shouldn’t have done, I did.”
Zoe said she experienced regular periods and even flew on holiday to Turkey two months before her little one’s unexpected arrival.
She had noticed some weight gain over the last few months but didn’t consider it abnormal.
Zoe said: “I had absolutely no symptoms. I thought I’d just put on a bit of weight.
“My period was light but I just put it down to stress and I still had them every month.
“I had no cravings or anything. I’d gained a bit of weight but I just put it down to having a few more snacks in the evening. I didn’t have a noticeable bump and no one mentioned anything.
“There was no morning sickness, there was no nausea, there was nothing. It really was a hidden pregnancy.”
A hidden pregnancy, otherwise known as a cryptic pregnancy, can go unnoticed until late pregnancy or even labour.
Zoe said: “I never used to believe cryptic pregnancy stories when I read about them until it happened to me.
“They think I carried her high up and that’s why I didn’t feel her move.
“I actually went on holiday to Turkey in June. I know now I shouldn’t have flown. I feel awful, I could’ve had her abroad. I was seven months pregnant without knowing.”
Zoe said their ‘massive surprise’ has fit perfectly into their growing family.
Zoe said: “I said I’d always have another one but our youngest isn’t quite two yet we said we would see. Then we said ‘Nope, we’re finished’.
“Because my husband is diabetic as well, they said our chances of having another one were quite slim. So when she came I thought, how on earth is she here? She fought against all the odds to be here.
“I was on and off the Pill but because we were told our odds of getting pregnant were unlikely, we didn’t think much of it. She was such a massive surprise.
“She’ll have the most amazing story to tell when she’s older.”
What is a “cryptic pregnancy”?
By medical definition, a cryptic pregnancy is one that is failed to be detected by medical testing.
There may be signs there, but essentially a cryptic pregnancy is one where these signs are not obvious to the woman, or she denies they are there.
A pregnancy test may come back negative even after the woman has missed her period for a number of medical reasons.
If she does get an ultrasound despite a negative pregnancy test, it’s possible a pregnancy won’t show up in the first trimester because of problems such as the way the uterus is shaped, or simply because the medic doesn’t spend time looking for it if they don’t believe it’s there.
Most people notice symptoms of pregnancy such as tender and swollen breasts, mood swings, fatigue, and nausea early on in their pregnancy.
But this could be dismissed by the woman as being caused by something else, such as a condition or diet.
There are also cases where someone become pregnant in their early teens before they understand the symptoms of pregnancy.
Cryptic pregnancies aren’t common, but they’re not unheard of, either. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women might not be aware of their pregnancies in up 1 in 475 cases, according to a British Medical Journal report.
Some women are more likely to have a cryptic pregnancy than others because they believe it is not possible for them to have a child.
It includes those with PCOS, who may have been told it will be difficult for them to have a child, and women on birth control pills, because the woman thinks the pill will protect her entirely from conceiving.
Women with low body fat may also fail to detect they are pregnant if their periods are irregular or absent as a result of being so slim.
Babies born from a cryptic pregnancy tend to be underweight, and the lack of prenatal care may affect their development.
But what about the bump?
A women may have a smaller bump – one she and others around her deem insignificant – for a number of reasons.
TikTok sensation NHS surgeon Dr Karan Rajan explained: “Most women have an anteverted uterus, [meaning] it’s slightly tilted forwards.
“But one in five have a backwards tilt towards the spine.”
The GP explained that for some women, their uterus may remain tiled backwards for the duration of their pregnancy.
“This ‘backwards growth’ could hide any bump,” he stated.
Other factors that could result in an invisible pregnancy could be “previous surgery, endometriosis and other gynaecological conditions [that] could scar the utroseacral ligament”.
“These are basically biological anchors which keep the uterus fixed to the spine and inside the pelvic cavities,” Dr Rajan explained.
“If these are stiff because of scarring, these ligaments can literally hold the uterus back and stop it from protruding too far out.”
People who are taller also have more of a chance of not displaying a noticeable bump when they’re expecting, the NHS surgeon went on.
“If you’re taller, you’ll have a longer torso so there’ll be more space for the uterus to develop upwards rather than just outwards,” he said, possibly giving the appearance of a small bump.
And if you have particularly “well developed” abs, this may make your uterus “develop closer to your core rather than protruding out”.
