Premenopausal mum shocked by surprise pregnancy and dramatic labour
Stephanie Jaegers had no idea she was nine months pregnant...
EVERY baby is a gift, but for one woman a little bundle of joy came as a complete surprise.
When Stephanie Jaegers, 37, was rushed to hospital with severe cramps she thought she was passing a kidney stone. But she was shocked to discover that she was actually 38 weeks pregnant and about to have a baby.
Already a mum-of-three, Stephanie hadn’t put on any weight and was still having periods.
But within hours of arriving at the emergency room near her home in Locust Grove, Georgia, she was cradling a 7lb 3oz baby in her arms.
What's more, a year before she gave birth in October, her GP told her she was premenopausal and her baby-making days were coming to an end.
“I knew in my heart, we’re done with kids. We’ve got three," Stephanie says, "But it was the shock of my body letting me know that hey this is about to be taken away from you.”
After needing a blood transfusion following the birth of her third child, a daughter named Sadie in December 2013, doctors warned Stephanie and her husband Mike not to risk having more.
Her placenta had become stuck, which mirrored difficulties she had when giving birth to her first two children and she ended up having surgery.
“I lost a lot of blood and it was very scary," says Stephanie who is also mum to 16-year-old Jakob and Dylan, 11.
So with that warning in mind, along with her premenopausal diagnosis in 2015, pregnancy was not on Stephanie’s radar on October 18 when she started experiencing severe back pain.
“I was having these waves of cramping – strong, menstrual cramps," says the mum, who was on her period at the time.
Stephanie's friend and aunt told her it sounded like kidney stones.
“The back pain was consistent and it was like an ache. As the day went on the waves of cramping got more and more intense."
By the time her husband came home around 10pm Stephanie's pain was so intense she asked to go to the emergency room.
At the hospital, the doctor examined Stephanie just as she was experiencing a wave of cramps:
“During these cramping things my stomach would get hard and at the time I wasn’t thinking anything about it."
After asking if she was pregnant twice, to which she answered no, the doctor sent her for a CT scan and ultrasound.
“I was like, ‘I’m on my period right now. Once the cramping goes away then my stomach goes back down’.”
Stephanie says she was anxious during the ultrasound because the technician wasn’t giving away much information.
“I can’t see her screen to see what’s going on and if she sees something that’s scary or alarming or anything," she says.
“I’m like: ‘What is it? Do you see something? Is it cancer? What is it?’”
Within moments Stephanie would get the shocking answer to her questions. The technician stopped the machine and the doctor came in.
“He comes in and says: ‘How many weeks is she?’
“I must have given him the most dirtiest look because I’m like, look mister, I’ve already told you, I’m on my period. There’s no baby in there."
But the technician confirmed Stephanie was 38-weeks pregnant.
Initially Stephanie still wasn’t convinced. She says: “I’m thinking you might want to look again because where is it? Where is it in my tummy? Other than a little bit of bloating, there’s no tummy.”
Stephanie, who put on between 20 and 60 pounds (4st 4lbs) with her previous pregnancies says: “I have a pouch from having my three kids so I don’t have a flat stomach but there was no belly.”
But the technician explained that the baby was sitting behind a rib, in the breech position with its feet up by his head.
“Then fear stepped in,” says Stephanie, who adds, “I was scared because we were told that we shouldn’t have any more [kids] because of the complications after Sadie.
“I was terrified that something was going to go wrong. I hadn’t had any prenatal care. I didn’t know what we were going to encounter.”
She was reunited with her husband Mike, but the couple didn’t have long for the news to sink in before they were whisked to the delivery room where staff did a test to see if her water had broken.
Stephanie says: “It did. I have no idea how it broke. There was no gush. There were no trickles of water. There was nothing like that.
“I was on my period but as far as a watery, fluid type leakage, there was none of that.”
The doctors were prepping her for a Caesarean section when they did one last examination and found that the baby was too far along the birth canal to do the operation.
“The baby’s butt was about to come out,” she says. “I had dilated to a 10 [cm] and his little butt was right there… So they decided that I should push."
Stephanie says she's not sure how long she had to push for, but it seemed like it took forever.
“First his butt came out, then his legs. Then they got his torso and then his arms and his head.”
She adds: “He was in great shape. He was perfect and, believe it or not, my placenta came out fine. The only one of my births that my placenta cooperated with me.”
Stephanie and Mike have named their little boy Shaun. She says that she is still shocked that she didn’t know she was pregnant throughout the nine months.
Doctors say it's not common for a woman to keep having her period throughout pregnancy, but it does happen.
“Afterwards, I was thinking I got really gypped on this one because I didn’t get my favourite part of the pregnancy, which is feeling the baby move.
"And I still got my stupid period the whole time. I didn’t even get a break from that.”
But, looking back she says she’s glad that – despite following doctor’s orders and using condoms to prevent pregnancy – little Shaun came along anyway.
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“I think that everything happens for a reason. He was definitely meant to be here.”
She adds: “If you would have said to me four years ago that I was going to have four kids I would have said you’re lying. There’s no way.
“But now it just feels right. This is how it’s supposed to be. This is our family. It’s complete.”