If you’ve ever had kidney stones or a kidney infection, you’ll be familiar with the symptoms. Abdominal cramps, back pain, pain when peeing… that’s exactly what Stephanie Jaegers was experiencing.
Kidney stones can be pretty serious if they’re left untreated, so Stephanie headed to her local hospital, Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge, Ga., for a checkup.
Hospital staff posed the question they always ask their female patients: was there any way that Stephanie could be pregnant?
Certainly not – Stephanie was 37 and her family was complete. Or so she thought…
The doctor who treated Stephanie must have had his suspicions, because he arranged for an ultrasound. And it confirmed the truth: Stephanie was 38 weeks pregnant.
Speaking to Fox 5 Atlanta, Stephanie recalled the moment she realized she’d been carrying a baby and was now ready to give birth.
She said:
“In my mind, I’m thinking – well, I’m not going to tell you what I’m thinking. I’m, like, ‘I’m going have to tell this man again that there’s no baby in there.’”
But the ultrasound didn’t lie!
Stephanie hardly had time to get her head around the fact that she was pregnant before she was preparing to deliver her son.
Stephanie, like many other women who have had babies, had always scoffed at the stories of moms who didn’t know they were pregnant.
But she, too, became one of those moms herself – and apparently – there was a reason why she hadn’t realized.
“He was breach and he was sitting, and as he was sitting his little feet were up by his head, so he couldn’t wiggle, couldn’t move. And the doctor said, you know, that’s why you couldn’t feel him.”
To add to that, Stephanie had had no symptoms and had even been diagnosed with early menopause.
She hadn’t had morning sickness or breast tenderness, she’d gained only a few pounds over the last months, and her stomach was only bulging a little.
As if that wasn’t enough, she was also on her period that very day.
It must have been a huge shock to have discovered that she was still fertile – and, in fact, pregnant and about to give birth!
But Stephanie said she believes that everything happens for a reason, adding:
“He wasn’t on the cards, he was not in the plans, but he was meant to be here for a reason. Maybe one day I’ll understand, but, you know, he is a sweetheart, I’m glad he’s here. I wouldn’t change it at all.”
Imagine heading to the hospital suspecting kidney stones and leaving with a newborn baby!
Stephanie and her husband suddenly had to make arrangements faster than they ever had before. As parenthood was supposedly never going to happen to them again, the old baby toys had clothes had long ago been donated to friends and family.
Shaun Jude Jaegers – weighing 7 pounds and 19 inches long – ironically came out the healthiest of Stephanie’s four children.
The parents only had a basket of clothes, offered by the hospital, for their unexpected arrival.
Though it might sound crazy, it really is possible for a woman to carry a baby throughout her pregnancy without even knowing she’s pregnant – and the condition even has a name: cryptic pregnancy.
In a German study of data in 1995 and 1996, it was found that one in 2,455 moms gave birth without realizing they were pregnant until labor.
