Woman who thought she needed ‘massive poo’ ended up giving birth in street

That's one way to come into the world

Katie Brown, 27, one morning woke up and she thought that her stomach pain was as a result of her period and even took paracetamol hoping that her pain would go away.

The pain, however, became unbearable and she could no longer even sit down so she decided to go to the hospital, only to end up giving birth on the street.

During an interview on This Morning, she recalled the incident, saying that she woke up and thought she was having period pains.

“So I went and got some paracetamol, and then I couldn't sit down”, she said.

“It got to about seven o'clock, and I thought, ‘I can't do this anymore, I'm going to have to go to A&E’. So, I told my mum, and then my mum came in and thought it was appendicitis”, she continued.

After the paramedics walked Katie out onto the street and towards the ambulance, she suddenly “dropped to her hands and knees”, and out came baby William.

“I genuinely thought I was just having a massive poo”, she told the hosts of This Morning, revealing she was still unaware that she was giving birth to a baby.

Her mother Diane realised what was happening and was able to catch her grandson's head.

“I could see something coming out, the shape. So I went down on my knees behind her and [caught him]”, her mother added.

What Katie experienced, according to doctors, is a rare phenomenon which is known as a cryptic - or stealth - pregnancy.

A cryptic pregnancy refers to a pregnancy where the mother either doesn't experience typical pregnancy symptoms, has a negative test result or has irregular periods, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

They are thought to occur in one in every 2,500 pregnancies, which in the UK equates to around 300 births a year.

Often, symptoms often linked to cryptic pregnancy resemble those of a typical pregnancy, such as nausea, tiredness, and tender breasts.

Cleveland Clinic explains that “in any pregnancy, an individual might not notice any distinct early signs of pregnancy; in cryptic pregnancies, these symptoms might be missing or extremely subtle, often overlooked for a considerable duration”.