A woman in Los Angeles had an unexpected surprise on Labour Day when she went into labour. Jennifer Favela said she didn’t know she was pregnant until all of sudden her water broke and she gave birth to a baby boy at 4 a.m.
In an interview with CBS, her husband Jeff Parungoa said he called 911. “I go: ‘I think my wife’s having a baby. But we’re not pregnant.’ I told her, and she’s like: ‘Excuse me?’”
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Favela said she had absolutely no idea she was expecting.
“Shocked is an understatement,” the new mom told CBS. “I woke up in the middle of the night just thinking I had a stomach ache.”
The 35-year-old mother has been pregnant before — she has a 13 and 7-year-old. But this time around, Favela said she never had morning sickness and continued to have light periods.
There was also weight gain, her husband Parungao said.
“I told her: ‘Hey, we need to do something. Man, you’re gaining weight.’”
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Pargunoa delivered the baby Monday morning in the family’s hallway. He said he was on the phone with dispatchers during the delivery and relied on what he saw when his other kids were born.
“The operator goes: ‘Do you see anything?’ I go: ‘I think I see something.’ And right when I said that, I go: ‘Oh yeah, I see something!’”
Surprise pregnancies are rare but have been brought to popular attention on reality TV shows like I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant.
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“The vast majority of women will have early nausea, will have breast tenderness and things like that and also missing a period,” Dr. Doug Wilson, the head of the University of Calgary’s obstetrics and gynecology department told Global News.
But that’s not always the case. There could be no weight gain, continued light periods and pregnancy tests can be wrong. Experts say surprise births are more likely to happen to women who are overweight.
The concern with surprise pregnancies is that expecting mothers aren’t preparing themselves or changing their lifestyles for their unborn child.
“You might not be eating properly; some women may smoke, some may take alcohol or other forms of over the counter medication that could have some potential risks,” Wilson said.
— With files from Erica Tucker and David Shum.