5 days ago
I thought I had stomach cramps but found out I was pregnant at 16 and gave birth 10 hours later
A mother has revealed how she made the shocking discovery that her painful stomach cramps weren't just indigestion - but that she was nine months pregnant.
Verity McConnell, 27, from Aberdeen, was just 16 when she found herself going into labour and giving birth to a baby girl one Saturday night - having been totally unaware of the fact that she was pregnant before that moment.
Like many 16-year-olds around the country, the teenager was enjoying partying at a school friend's birthday bash when she began to experience extreme stomach cramps.
Initially thinking them to be period cramps, Verity, who is now a mother-of-three, went home and tried to sleep off the pain, but soon found it intensifying to the point that her mother rushed to the local maternity hospital, as per instructed by a NHS 24 caller.
There, and in complete shock, gave birth to a healthy 7lb 7oz baby girl the next morning at 10:30am, just 10 hours after first making the discovery.
The teenager was completely blindsided by the discovery, and said she had continued to have periods through the gestation.
Relaying the tale of her surprise birth on TikTok, the 27-year-old revealed her daughter is now nearly 11-years-old, and she has had a subsequent two children with her partner.
She recalled coming home from the house party at around 11pm, heading straight to bed with what felt like painful period cramps.
'It just didn't feel right, just like something was off and then I started getting really bad stomach cramps,' she said.
'I remember going to the toilet and then going to my bed and then my cramps were getting more often and painful.
'I kept thinking, just go to sleep, go to sleep. But every time I kept trying to go to sleep I couldn't, like it was so sore.'
So disturbed by her pain, Verity then went to wake up her mother, admitting she was 'nervous' to wake up.
'I think she could see that I was in quite a bit of pain and nothing was really helping it at all.'
Her mother then called the NHS who advised them to go to the maternity ward.
'I'm lying there. I'm 16, I'm terrified and she [the nurse] looks at me and looks at my mum and she goes, there is definitely a baby in there and you are going to have it very soon.'
She was then sent off for testing and scans where she was informed that she was 37 weeks pregnant.
'I think because everything was like such a rush and I was basically just running on pure adrenaline, I managed to give birth.
'She was 7lb 7oz so she wasn't even that small and I did all with just gas and air and pure adrenaline.
'I didn't have anything for this baby, not a single thing,' she said, since the baby had been a total surprise.
'My baby had to wear clothes that were donated to the hospital and nappies from the hospital.'
Doctors suggested that one of the reasons Verity didn't have a bump or symptoms was because the baby was growing towards her back.
'I had no bump, I could still fit in all my clothes. I'd been to T in The Park, I'd been on holidays, I'd been on water slides.
'I've had no scans, I've had no tests, I've had no midwife appointments, I've had no checks, nothing.'
The only indicator of her pregnancy was that she felt she had 'put on a bit of weight' and had even been considering going to the gym to shift the extra pounds.
'I just wasn't feeling like myself,' she said. Nevertheless, she still fit into all her clothes and was none the wiser to the baby growing inside her.
The 27-year-old has since given birth to two more children and lives in Aberdeen with her partner.
