Woman hospitalised after waking up with pain in the night gives birth to surprise baby
A teenager in the US went to hospital with suspected kidney stones - and left with a daughter.
BriAnna Blanton, from South Carolina, had spent the summer of 2022 living life as usual, wearing bikinis down at the lake and riding horses, totally oblivious to the fact she was carrying a baby.
The 18-year-old didn't have the foggiest clue she was pregnant until she started going into labour.
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BriAnna had continued to get her period, didn't gain any weight or experience any pregnancy symptoms, and even had negative pregnancy tests.
But then on 8 September, she woke up in pain and was wet, and assumed she'd had an accident. However, the pain got worse and worse and she decided to wake her mum, with the pair making their way to hospital.
They guessed that maybe she was suffering from kidney stones, but the truth came as a huge surprise - BriAnna was 5cm dilated and a baby was on the way.
"I'll never forget the look on her face when she told me that she thought I was 8cm dilated," she recalled.
"My mouth fell to the floor. I couldn't even cry. I was in a total state of shock.
"I was then taken to the labour and delivery department, where they confirmed that I was actually 5cm dilated and a baby was on the way.
"I had an epidural, but before it could even start to work, the baby arrived within ten minutes of having the epidural."
BriAnna gave birth to her surprise daughter, Oakleigh Allyn - who weighed 7lbs 4oz - at 7:36am on 9 September.
As you can imagine, it was a lot for BriAnna to get her head around.
"I have no idea how I had a 7lbs baby inside of me. I had always been so skinny," she said.
"When I eventually calmed down after giving birth, my mum asked me what I was going to name her. I spent 45 minutes thinking about it before coming up with the name Oakleigh.
"I was so unprepared for having a baby. I didn't have any nappies, a cot, or clothes. I didn't have anything at all."
Now the initially whirlwind has passed, BriAnna feels blessed to have Oakleigh in her life - as well as her loving friends and family.
She said: "It took me a while to process and get used to the situation. I was also terrified to tell my friends because I didn't know how they'd react.
"I didn't tell them for about a week, but when I eventually did, they were so amazing about it.
"Although it was really hard to pull myself out of the shock at first, I am now loving being a mum.
"Luckily, I had worked in childcare previously so I wasn't totally unaware of how to look after a baby. It all started to come to me naturally, along with the help and support from my mum.
"Although Oakleigh was a massive surprise, she is a really big blessing in disguise and I wouldn't change being her mum for anything in the world."
Jake Massey