IAmA "woman who didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labor"

Anyone else agree that this might be crazier than the Romanian hitman?

"I was featured on 'I didn't know I was pregnant.' Tiffany from season 2, episode 'home alone'"

Q & A after the jump.

(note: if you couldn't guess, this post is NSFLunch)


update: bumped to the top for the sake of the comments.  Way to bury the hatchet, guys -- I approve.





Hi-the episode I was in aired on TLC October 28th, and replayed this past week on Discovery Health. I believe the next time it airs is on November 21st, but I will double-check that. Because i didn't know I was pregnant, I did, in the first few months, smoke, and I had some drinks at a Christmas party. Fortunately the smell of the cigarette smoke started making me sick, and so I was not smoking toward the end of my pregnancy. I also did a lot of heavy lifting-we were moving into a new house and I was moving boxes and furniture in the last months. As far as weight goes, I am 5ft 4 inches and normally weighed in between 125-130 lbs. In the last month, before I knew i was pregnant, I weighed 135 lbs. After giving birth, I weighed 132. When I went into labor, I did think i was dying! I have ovarian cysts, and thought that one had ruptured, but the pain was far worse! I didn't make it to the hospital-I had him at home. My husband was away on a business trip, and was shocked when he came home to find out he was a dad. We had been told I would never have children..at first he thought I stole the baby!! I had no idea about pregnancy, labor, children..until that moment I had the baby! We named him Blake..and are just grateful everything turned out ok. If this hadn't happened to me, and I heard a story like that, I never would have believed it...it just sounds crazy! crazy, but in my case, true.

What were your immediate thoughts when you went into labor? Did you make it to a hospital? Does the father know? 
I thought I was dying! Not only did I deliver the baby at home, but instead of calling 911, waited for my husband to get home to go to the hospital. he nearly had a stroke when he saw me with the baby. he said it wasn't his or my baby. he thought I stole the baby!

Let's get this out of the way. Your weight at time of giving birth?
As far as weight goes, I am 5ft 4 inches and normally weighed in between 125-130 lbs. In the last month, before I knew i was pregnant, I weighed 135 lbs. After giving birth, I weighed 132.
(cont)
I checked with my husband, and he said that my weight at the Er was 138, not 132..if that makes a difference?

Did you do anything that would be considered harmful to the fetus? Like, were you drinking/smoking during your unknowing pregnancy?
I did smoke the first few months, and had a few drinks at my work Xmas party. Other than that, and lifting things that were too heavy while moving, not really. well, i didn't eat like i was pregnant, and didn't take any prenatal vitamins...

How did you not know that you were pregnant? I thought there were lots of signs that were dead giveaways.
me too! I still got my period, no baby bump or weight gain, no cravings, no enhanced chest :) nothing to lead me, or my husband or coworkers to think I was pregnant.

No enhanced chest.. so do you breastfeed?
yes, i breastfed. The doctor that checked to make sure Blake was "latching on" properly,said the milk comes in once you give birth. I do have to say that, a few days later, they were HUGE and hurt like h*. I breastfed Blake til he was 6 months.

How do you not notice when the baby quickens?
I know this sounds stupid, but I had no idea what that even means-"quickens". Remember, I thought I couldn't have children, therefore I never knew anything about it. the only point of reference I had was watching my dog have puppies!
(note: It's when the baby starts to move, and I apologize, it's actually a really old word that isn't common anymore. I'm into old literature and history and sometimes come out with anachronisms.)

You didn't feel the baby kick or move around?
No, I didn't feel him move around. I have what i guess is called a 'tilted uterus', and so my gyno said I would have carried the baby where he maybe didn't kick as much. One time though, I did tell my sister-in-law "damn, it feels like something's kicking me in the ribs"..she said maybe I was pregnant and even had me show her my belly! Then she apologized, because she felt bad that she even mentioned it-everyone in my family knew I couldn't have children..or so we thought.

Didn't you have a noticeable baby bump? Did you get your period?
no baby bump. periods were normal then light towards the end..but that's cause the cyst that i had was ruptured due to the baby getting bigger.

So your cyst bleed once a month for a weekish?
when they are large cysts, the kind that don't rupture at a few centimeters, they will bleed sometimes up to two weeks, until they finally burst and then there is a large release of blood and fluid. I had gone to the doctor in august and found out the cyst I had was larger than a grapefruit. The doctors, after looking at my medical history recommended, as usual, a hysterectomy. I didn't want that! We belive the baby was conceived in early September) and the doctors said that as the baby grew, the cyst would leak fluid, therefore like a period. My periods usually only lasted 3 days anyway. Sorry to be graphic about the fluid and all!

Why didn't you go to the hospital or call 911 when you first had the baby? I know on the show you said you wanted to wait until your husband got home, but weren't you scared of the possible life threatening consequences of not getting medical care? If you had it to do over, would you have made the same choices post-birth?
Glad you brought that up. I was surprised when i saw the show, that they left some of the medical info out. In the international version, because it's longer; they explore more my state of mind after giving birth. On the show, it says I was in shock, but I can honestly say that is the dumbest thing i've ever done in my life, not calling 911 or anyone. Those two days are mostly a blur, and although I guess that's what i was thinking, that I would just wait for my husband...I still can't believe I didn't go to the hospital! I just couldn't believe what had happened. In my state of mind, I never thought that the baby and I were in danger. If i could change one thing in my life, it would be that as soon as I could get to the phone, i would have called 911!

I wish they'd gone into it more on the show, you sound much more logical than the show made you out to be. I can totally understand being in shock, but I agree that that was pretty glossed over in the episode. Glad everything turned out ok in the end :]
Thanks. I guess because it was just half an hour, they couldn't explain everything, but they did leave out some parts that i wish they had explained more. In the the hours of interviews I did explain, but had no control over what ended up on the show. When my son saw it, he said "momma, that is a SCARY show!"

How's the baby?
He's great; thanks for asking. I was worried that he would have breathing problems, due to my smoking, but his pediatrician says his lungs are good.

how much did the baby weigh? was he premature?
he weighed 7 lbs, 7 ounces..that was two days later. The doctors believe he was maybe 4-6 weeks early, because I had preeclampsia. Apparently that causes premature labor.


How old were you when this happened? Were you using any birth control (pills/condoms/etc.) at the time you conceived?


Hi. i was 38 years old. I had been told at the age of 30 that I could not conceive. A ruptured appendix had scarred one ovary at the age of 18, and after getting married, i had tests run to see about having a baby, and was told the other ovary was too damaged. They basically said, sorry, no baby for you.

How did your friends and family react when it all happened? Did they believe you when you explained that you didn't know you were pregnant?
My friends and family thought it was crazy. The people at work came to the house as soon as I called them, they thought I stole the baby too. They had just seen me three days prior so they believed that i didn't know..and both my mom and husband had seen me, getting out of the shower, changing clothes,etc..They didn't think that I was lying, they just couldn't believe I didn't call 911!! My brothers were less nice about it, saying what a dummy, how could you NOT know??

How did you end up on the TLC show? Did you contact them, or did they contact you? What was production like?
A coworker wrote to TLC and told them my story, and the producers contacted me soon after. It all moved pretty quickly as far as phone interviews, and then their research into the medical history and birth and all. They sent a crew to our home in August for the day. It was 12 hours of interviews and footage and the crew was great! After that, they contacted me and let me know when the show would air. All in all a great experience, especially for my little boy. Sure there are people that make fun of me for not knowing..I make fun of myself a lot of times too :) but I'm glad we did the show.

ok this might sound pervy, but i assure you it is not and i am a female- but you had the baby for two days, how did you feed it? i assume you were not lactating prior to the birth b/c youd have noticed...did you start being able to breast feed (if you did) right away?
Yes, as soon as I had him, I got him to nurse. The doctor at the Er said milk production starts after you give birth? Then two days after that my breasts got huge! I breatfed Blake til he was 6 months. Glad my milk did come in-I hadn't even thought about what would have happened to him at home two days with no nourishment. Again, I feel stupid but oh so lucky!

Do you still smoke?
on occasion, but never around Blake. Getting ready to quit with the aid of Wellbutrin, which is supposed to curb the cravings. Anyone used that?

Did you get paid to be on the show? I always wonder that when I see shows like that. Thanks!
No, we didn't get paid. They did send me a dvd of the episode though :)

How did you convince your husband that you didn't steal the baby from someone else? I know that if I were the husband I would be very, very suspicious that you happen to have a baby with no signs of pregnancy and also that you coincidentally gave birth while I was gone.
Good question. I had cleaned up the mess in the bathroom, but, sorry to be graphic, couldn't get the blood stains out of the carpet, so there were hand and foot prints from where i had crawled around in the hallway. Still, that could have been someone else's prints..I guess, after seeing how horrible I looked- i was pale, and couldn't stand for long..plus he knew deep down that i wouldn't steal a baby. As soon as we got to the Er, they did a pelvic(ouch!) exam, with him in the room, and confirmed that I had, in fact, given birth!

Umm, if you gave birth at home and didn't call an ambulance or anything what did you do with the placenta and cord?
after cutting the umbilical cord, I ended up "delivering" the placenta while standing on the stairs of my house(they didn't put that part in the show). My three cats appeared to be interested in it :) so I hurried and put the placenta in a trash bag. One of my friends had actually buried hers in their back yard and planted a tree over it-anyone hear of that?

Did your doctors say why you didn't show, was it because your uterus was inverted, or the baby was growing up into your rib cage, or anything?
They said I had a tilted uterus, and so i carried him differently than a normal pregnancy. The back aches i thought were caused by heavy lifting were probably because of the way i was carrying him.