Bizarre case of 17-year-old girl who only discovered she was 9 months pregnant after going to the ER feeling ‘odd’, then gave birth the same day

By Liam On Jun 27, 2024

Like millions of women every year, teenager Paige Hall decided to take a pregnancy test after “feeling weird.”

Little did she know that she would have a baby that very day.

It wasn’t until she was in the emergency room that doctors told the shocked, then 17-year-old girl that she was in fact 9 months pregnant and that she needed an immediate C-section.

Mrs Hall suffered what doctors call a cryptic pregnancy. This is a situation in which a woman does not show any obvious signs that she is pregnant, such as missing her period or developing a noticeable baby bump.

The now 25-year-old mother from Prestwood, Buckinghamshire, told how stunned she was when she learned she was 39 weeks pregnant and would become a mother that day.

Paige Hall, 25, had a cryptic pregnancy and didn’t realize she was 39 weeks pregnant

‘I was so scared. I was young, I was on my own. And the very idea terrified me. But I truly believe everything happens for a reason,” Ms. Hall said.

In a video, she explained that she had no pregnancy symptoms and a non-existent bump, as she showed an old image of her looking at her ‘bump’ (pictured)

Mrs Hall explained that she was using contraception throughout and had not missed a period during the nine months she was pregnant with her son Jenson.

As for her missing belly, the mother explained that her son was lying on her back, which still made her look very slim.

It wasn’t until she was 39 weeks pregnant that she noticed symptoms.

She said: ‘I was using the combination pill, but I want to make it clear that there is no contraceptive that offers 100 percent protection.

‘I didn’t miss a single period, not one, which was obviously a telltale sign why I didn’t think I was pregnant.’

How common are cryptic pregnancies?

One in 450 pregnant women in Britain do not know they will have a child until week 20 (halfway) of their pregnancy, and one in 2,500 women are unaware until they go into labor.

It’s a phenomenon known as cryptic pregnancy, also called “pregnancy denial.”

Cryptic pregnancies usually occur in young women who have never been pregnant before, or in women who think they are in menopause and therefore can no longer become pregnant.

Women with erratic menstrual cycles are also more likely to miss signs they expect. This is especially true for women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), in which small cysts grow on the ovaries and the resulting hormonal imbalance often leads to irregular or nonexistent periods.

However, some women continue to have monthly bleeding during pregnancy. In this case, a scan at your local GP may be the only method of confirmation.

Women may simply not expect to be pregnant when taking the pill, but those who use the pill religiously can still become pregnant.

Eight in 100 women can become pregnant while taking the pill – usually not because of problems with the pill, but because of problems with the pill, either because they have missed a pill, or have had vomiting or diarrhoea that reduces its effectiveness.

Mrs Hall explained that she woke up one morning feeling ‘very strange’ and took a pregnancy test which came back positive.

Panicking, Mrs Hall called her doctor but was advised to have a scan at hospital.

She said she didn’t see the results right away when the scan was done, but she did remember the doctors giving her brochures about having a caesarean section.

“While I’m having the scan, all the nurses are running around. I thought, ‘OK, that’s a bit strange.’ They came back with all these brochures saying if I wanted a c-section, I had to have it that day because of how far along I was,” she said.

Despite being completely unaware of how far along she was, her son, Jensen, was born completely healthy weighing seven pounds and she described him as the best thing that had ever happened to her.

As an absolutely terrified teenager with nothing to care for a child, she didn’t know where to turn for help, so she decided to ask online and said she found a whole community of people who had or were going through a similar experience to support her. .

She said, “I went to online sites and I begged and pleaded with the community to help me. So many members of the community reached out and they helped me with absolutely everything I needed.”

‘Sometimes being pregnant and being a mother can be very lonely. And we all have our own problems,” she added.

“Jensen would come to me and come into my life, and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”

A 2002 article in the British Medical Journal found that mystery pregnancies occur in only one in 2,500 pregnancies.

Dr. Lawrence Cunningham of health consultancy UK Care Guide said cryptic pregnancy appeared to be linked to several factors.

“From what I have seen, the rarity depends on several factors, including hormonal imbalances, use of contraception such as the minipill and individual differences in how women experience pregnancy symptoms,” he said.

He added: ‘Some women may continue to have seemingly regular periods, and if they do not show a typical pregnancy bump, it can be quite challenging to recognize the pregnancy without specific tests.’

Dr. Cunningham added that cryptic pregnancies are not only uncommon, but also pose unique risks.

“One of the biggest concerns is the lack of prenatal care, which is crucial for monitoring the health of both the mother and the developing baby,” he said.

‘Without regular check-ups, possible complications such as gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia or fetal growth retardation may go unnoticed and untreated.’