A woman has give birth to a miracle baby boy she didn’t know she was carrying until she went into labour.
Annie Evans, 39, was told that she was unlikely to ever have children after years of using the contraceptive injection – so when she did fall pregnant, she believed her symptoms were down to suffering from IBS and the start of the menopause.
On March 29, Annie woke in the early hours of the morning with what she thought was stomach cramps but only released she was giving birth after her baby’s head appeared.
Baby Lionel was born still inside the amniotic sac, which new mum, Annie, from Worcester, UK, had to tear open herself before paramedics arrived to cut the cord.
‘I just never thought having kids would be an option for me,’ Annie says. ‘Although I can’t believe what’s happened I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Annie explains she’d been feeling ‘tired and sluggish’ before the shock birth.
‘I had also been struggling to breathe but the baby was sitting up under my ribs and that’s why my stomach had not changed shape that much,’ she explains.
‘I had no idea what was happening until the head appeared and I called my mum to ring for an ambulance.’
Baby Lionel, named after Annie’s father who has passed away, had been sitting on Annie’s diaphragm with the placenta in front, masking him inside the womb and meaning that she felt limited movements.
After feeling down due to a work redundancy Annie had been to the doctors for a check up but no one realised she was pregnant.
Annie gave birth to 3kg baby Lionel on her bed at her mum’s house at 6.50am but her waters failed to break and he was still inside the amniotic sac when he arrived.
Caul Births, where the baby remains inside the sac, are extremely rare, occurring in around 1 in 80,000 births.
Chef Annie said: ‘I had to open the sac myself and when I heard him cry it was the biggest relief, I knew then that he was okay.
‘The paramedics arrived and they were worried about getting me down the stairs but I walked while I held him and they cut the cord in the ambulance.’
The pair spent a week in hospital to make sure Lionel was happy and healthy after his surprise delivery.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
