A woman who thought she was suffering regular back pain was stunned when it turned out she was pregnant and in labour.
Ceira Sutherland, 24, dramatically gave birth to her daughter after rushing to A&E with crippling stomach and rib pains.
The pet shop worker claims she had her menstrual period six weeks before giving birth, had no baby bump, suffered no morning sickness and used condoms every time she had sex with her partner.
Ceira says she continued to party and drink when she didn’t know she was pregnant with Amelia Aitken, who was delivered full-term.
Ceira and 27-year-old partner Andrew Aitken had been told that conceiving would be difficult due polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
But she ended up conceiving and crying the baby to term without knowing she was pregnant until she went into labour.
She describes how butcher Andrew was so stunned he stood “silently in shock” for a while when she gave birth.
Ceira, from Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, said: “We hadn’t even thought about having children yet. I have PCOS so I was told quite young that I might not even be able to have children so this was a complete surprise. We were using condoms every time so it was an even bigger surprise. Kids were something we both wanted but not for a while.”
Two days before Amelia’s arrival, Ceira did an 11-hour shift at work when she began experiencing excruciating back pain. Unsuspecting Ceira went home to her partner’s house when her symptoms worsened and she decided to head A&E.
Ceira said: “At work, I have to pull in big deliveries and it never bothered me before but my back felt so sore that I had to go sit down and put a hot pack on it. I finished my shift and went to my partner’s house. I felt really sick and my back was sore, I just went for a nap. I woke up and started to get rib pains but thought nothing of it. When it was about 11pm that night I thought ‘something is not right’ and I decided to go to A&E.”
Doctors sent Ceira home with painkillers but she was forced to return three hours later after the pain intensified.
Medics believed there could be something wrong with Ceira’s gallbladder – but were confused over the level of pain she was experiencing. After a urine sample was taken, Ceira was told it was positive but she believed it was a false positive due to her PCOS.
Ceira said: “I didn’t even know they were doing a pregnancy test on my urine sample until she said they’ve both come back positive. I thought it could be a false positive because of my PCOS or, if I was, I was only a few weeks along. I was more concerned about the pain I was in.”
Further tests left doctors baffled over the cause of Ceira’s pain. Eventually, it was confirmed she was definitely pregnant, but Ceira was told the baby was 20 weeks at most due to her recent period.
Ceira said: “Looking back now it’s so obvious it was contractions because it was intense shooting pain every five minutes but I was never thinking ‘I’m in labour’. Doctors couldn’t understand why I was in so much pain. They said it was definitely a cyst. I was getting pain relief but it wasn’t even taking the edge off the pain.”
The next day a nurse went to swab Ceira for one final test when she spotted the baby’s head emerging. Ceira said: “As the nurse went to swab me, I just heard an ‘oh’. I said ‘is that a bad oh?’ She said ‘You’re pregnant, the head’s there, you’re in labour’. Then it was a mad rush to take me to the labour unit. There were loads of doctors waiting in this room for me. I thought it would be a teeny baby and I didn’t know if it was a survivable age. Once I started labour and her head was out, they said ‘This is clearly not a 20-week-old baby’.”
Just hours after finding out she was pregnant, Ceira gave birth to baby Amelia, weighing 9lb and 13oz.
However, Ceira was concerned about the health of her new arrival after admitting to drinking alcohol during her pregnancy.
Ceira said: “When she came, I thought ‘whose baby is this?’ I don’t think it kicked in until a week later that this is our baby. Andrew was silent and stood there in shock. He didn’t know what to do or say, he took it quite well though.
“I had been on nights out and I had drunk. I think I had been on a night out in mid-October not knowing I was eight months pregnant. I was quite drunk, there were spirits and shots, and it was a big night out. I felt a lot of guilt when she was born. When I found out I was definitely pregnant, I thought ‘I’ve drunk and what am I going to give birth to right now?’. I was so relieved when they said she was completely fine.”
Ceira said she continued to have her periods and showed none of the obvious signs of pregnancy.
She said: “With my PCOS my periods are quite irregular anyway, I had one six weeks before she was born. I’d gone over a year without a period before so this wasn’t unusual for me. I never took a pregnancy test, I had no morning sickness.
“There was no change in my stomach at all and no pains until I was in labour. Being pregnant hadn’t crossed my mind at all over the nine months. Every doctor said this is such a miracle because I’d been told I couldn’t have kids because of my PCOS.”
Reflecting on her daughter’s “crazy” arrival into the world. Ceira said: “She’s honestly the easiest baby ever. From a week old, she’s slept 12 hours a night. She’s a really happy baby. It’s crazy that a year ago we didn’t even know about her.”
