LittleThings has covered some pretty shocking births. There was the Utah woman who was told she'd never get pregnant and then had two sets of identical twins. Then there was the woman who thought she was getting a tiny newborn, but instead, she gave birth to a 13-pound baby!
A recent birth in Weymouth, MA might be the most surprising birth we've seen.
And this birth didn't just surprise us — it surprised the mother too!
That's right, 23-year-old Katherine "Katie" Kropas got the shock of her life when she gave birth, unexpectedly, to a sweet, perfectly healthy baby girl.
Your reaction might be the same as mine: "How can anyone not know that they're pregnant?" — but this isn't the first time it's happened. TLC had an entire series called I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant that featured reenactments of stories similar to Katie's.
It's bizarre to be sure, but also a blessing. Katie was surrounded by a loving and supportive family, and she told her local newspaper, The Patriot Ledger, “It’ll be fun. I’ll have lots of help.”
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Katie has worked for two years as a catering manager at an Italian eatery in Massachusetts and has never had to call out until this past Tuesday, when she felt a crippling pain in her stomach that forced her to rush to the hospital. She waited for hours
Cases like this are becoming increasingly more and more common. The phenomenon is called a "cryptic Pregnancy," and approximately one in every 2,500 women will go into labor without knowing they're pregnant. They may have little to no abdomen swelling, no nausea, no weight gain, and even something resembling a period can occur.
More than just a physical denial, cryptic pregnancies, according to a 2006 study, might be the result of fetuses not emitting enough human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), which lets expecting mothers know they are pregnant.
Even Katie's delivering doctor, Dr. Ben Hamer, admits to seeing "a couple" of cases like this each year.
Katie claims that she'd seen no signs of pregnancy. There was no morning sickness, and though she'd seen some swelling in her ankles, she'd assumed that had been from standing during her 50-hour work week.
She had remained on birth control through the entire pregnancy, and she credited the weight gain on Christmas over-indulgence. Pregnancy was legitimately the last thing on her mind.
Katie's boyfriend, Dan Keefe, sat by her side as she was feeling ill. When the diagnosis was given and Katie found out she'd be giving birth in an hour, Dan, who had been dating Katie for two and a half years, called her parents immediately.
The baby was born by C-section and weighed 10 pounds, two ounces. She was happy and extremely healthy, and all of Katie's family journeyed out to greet her. Once the initial shock passed, they were excited to welcome this new addition to their family.
Katie's own mother admitted she'd heard of these stories, but never thought they could really happen until they happened to her daughter.
They named the adorable little girl Ellen Olivia based on the grandmother who drove her to the hospital. She's doing well and the family is expected to be able to leave the hospital any day now.
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