We're all about same-day delivery—when it comes buying shoes or a cute coffee table. But having a baby? That's taking things to a whole other level—one that New Zealand couple Charlene Wells, 28, and Eamon Parkes, 31 found themselves on last week when Wells discovered she was pregnant and then gave birth (!!!) that very same day.
As Stuff.co.nz reports, Wells didn't know she was pregnant when she started feeling stomach pains that sent her to the hospital. "I thought it was kidney stones or something," she told the publication. The medical staff then informed her that—surprise!—she was actually 40 weeks pregnant...and in labor.
She gave birth to a healthy (and adorable) baby boy, Carlo Leslie Parkes-Wells, who weighed in at 7.9 pounds.
If you're thinking, *But how did she not know she was pregnant? *, well, it does happen—and more often than you think. The term used is "cryptic pregnancy," and research shows it happens to roughly one out of every 475 pregnant women, who don't know they are pregnant until the later stages of pregnancy. There's even a Facebook page set up as a support group for women who experience cryptic pregnancy.
A woman who doesn't realize she's pregnant may lack some of the tell-tale signs—for instance, she might not experience nausea or much of a change in the appearance of her abdomen. As CBS News reports, she might also have previously been diagnosed with infertility and think she's unable to have children, or have an irregular period to begin with.
In Wells' case, she says she experienced lower back pain, but figured it was from working on her feet as a sous chef. And those few extra pounds? "I normally bike a lot so I thought I had just put on a couple of pounds from a sleepy winter," she told Stuff.co.nz.
"Most people have eight or nine months to prepare," said Parkes. "We had about nine hours."
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