Well, my asked my friend for a link to the website she posted on, but it's been taken down now. But she very graciously sent me the following: -
"How to have a baby and not even know it.
by Teresa
I am not entirely sure where to begin. The short version is that in 2004 I gave birth to a gorgeous 8 pound, 9 ounce baby boy. The complication is that I was unaware of the pregnancy until three hours before my delivery by Cesarean Section.
A simple glance at that makes you think I?m an idiot or mentally ill, or naive, or in denial... but non of those are true and it?s not that simple. I actually fit into a group of women where this is fairly common, each having all three of a trifecta of complaints: 1) older (mid-late 30's, early 40's), 2) history of chronic health problems, especially fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and the like, and 3) long history of infertility issues. Every doctor and nurse I've talked to about it since says yes, it's far more common than we realize and they are all quite familiar with the phenomenon.
In retrospect I guess it was obvious that I was pregnant, all the pieces fall in place when you look back on it, but hindsight is indeed 20/20. As the events progressed it was not so clear, not to me or to anyone around me. Lack of insurance and regular medical care was the first culprit. Having recently moved to a new state and a new relationship, those things hadn't really fallen into place yet, and I honestly hadn?t been sick enough to go to the doctor, except for what we now know was the very beginning of the pregnancy. I don?t recall that they asked to do a test, but if they did it certainly didn?t come back positive. I did three tests myself during that early time period, and two were negative. One was inconclusive. All my symptoms were explained totally by other health problems I suffer. Everything as it happened was easy to pass off on something else ? and having been told many times over my reproductive lifetime that I would probably never be able to get pregnant, I was reluctant to get my hopes up again. I'd been what amounts to child-free for most of my adult life, but after my father's death I'd started to be more interested in having a child. We weren't trying, but we weren't trying not to.
Let me start at the beginning and try to explain the progression of events. In case you wonder why I?m bothering to explain all this, I'd like to have a reasonably coherent account of the details for my son someday, just to help him have more of a sense of who he is and where he comes from. There's been so much curiosity and misinformation about it out there that I wanted to share it publicly as well.
Apparently I conceived in November. With a birth date (and apparent due date) of August 6, the conception would have been after Halloween, definitely. I wasn?t aware of anything until I got sick with a cold at the end of November, right after we returned home from Thanksgiving with my Mother. The cold was pretty nasty, and turned into a sinus infection after a week or so. I went to the doctor at that point (around the first or second week of December) and he diagnosed the sinus infection, but not a pregnancy. I don?t remember if the subject came up, but if he or a nurse had asked, I?d have said no I wasn?t. He gave me an antibiotic and I went home. For several months after that I was still congested, and I threw up a lot from it. That was unusual, but I have never had congestion like that before. It was a bad sinus infection.
At three different points from December through about April, I suspected that I might be pregnant. Each time we went out and got a test. Two times it was negative. One time it was inconclusive. Each time I had a symptom, I told myself that I was nuts to attribute it to pregnancy. I forcibly slapped myself down each time I got my hopes up, with echoes of all the OBGYN diagnoses I?ve had over the years, and all the doctors who?d told me that I?d never be able to get pregnant.
So yes, I had morning sickness. It was just the sinus infection. Yes, I had backache and fatigue. I have fibromyalgia. Yes, I?m obese, so my belly was distended. Yes, I had a small amount of movement, but I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Altogether I didn?t have that much change in my life ? enough that in hindsight I should have known, but not enough that in the day-to-day any of us would really know. Suspicions at various times? Yes. Enough proof to actually go to the doctor? No.
The final stages of the saga are probably the most amazing. About a week before I gave birth I thought I was starting my period. I had a very small amount of rusty blood discharge, typical of me. I also had some cramping. The discharge stopped, but the cramps continued, and started getting worse. By Sunday evening I was really in pain. Monday I started getting lower back spasms. This was coupled by what I thought was a bladder infection that had seemed to be coming on for some time, and when I could finally not pee at all on Tuesday, I went to the urgent care clinic. The doctor there diagnosed me as having a bladder infection, and asked me to let him admit me to the hospital to check out the back pain, since it was too low for the kidneys. I?ve had the same lower back pain for 8 years previously (been without the last two, thank goodness) so I wasn?t about to go to the hospital for something I thought I could just get rid of by doing my PT exercises again. I came home, and it got worse. By Thursday night I was being wracked with violent low-back spasms. I couldn?t eliminate. I was miserable. I suffered for another hour or so, and at about 12:30 I woke my partner up and asked him to take me to the hospital.
At the ER they figured out what the "problem" was, much to our complete and utter astonishment. I will skip the details of the birth, let's just say it wasn't perfect because I ended up needing a c-section, but it went as easily as could be expected. I gave birth at 8:15 a.m. to a perfect baby boy. He was whisked away for tests, but everything was just as it should be. Now it's six years later. Our son is the happiest, healthiest, most amazing kid around. He's smart and funny (this kid has a wicked sense of humor) and is currently excelling in a very intense half-day kindergarten program. He's barely been sick (except for an eye issue which I also had as a child), and he's my reason for living. We have a great life, and I'm grateful each and every day that I have such an amazing partner, such an amazing child, and the ability to stay home and raise him. ~~ "
She's in America, hence the reference to no medical insurance.
You can believe it or not. But it's 100% a true account.