A woman who didn’t realise she was pregnant has revealed how she gave birth on the toilet after mistaking labour pains for period cramps.
Leanne Henshaw gave birth to Oliver in October despite having a birth control injection 18 months before.
The 43-year-old had just arrived home from a holiday in Africa with husband Paul, 47, and daughters, Mollie, 26, Lilly, 18, and Grace, 16, when she started having stomach pains.
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She got out of bed at 4am to use the toilet and ended up giving birth to 8lbs Oliver in less than 30 seconds in front of her shocked family.
Taxi driver Paul went into “autopilot” and kept Oliver on his chest until an ambulance arrived.
“I had no symptoms at all,” Leanne, who is currently unemployed and from Liverpool, told What’s the Jam.
“There was no bump, sickness or extra weight and I was still having periods.
“I’ve been having birth control injections every three years for 16 years and I was nowhere near due for another.
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“I was absolutely fine all day until I went to bed and woke up with pains as if I needed the toilet.
“I felt unbearable and uncomfortable pains while I was laying down but I thought it was period cramps.
“I didn’t even think about what was happening until I looked down and saw the head.
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“I was screaming for Paul that I was having a baby.
“Oliver was out before I could even count to 10.
“Paul just went into autopilot and reacted the only way he knew how, by picking the baby up and keeping him on his chest.”
Leanne had been drinking and smoking throughout the pregnancy but thankfully, Oliver is perfectly healthy.
She’d also been on holiday to Africa the week before where she’d been wearing a bikini and showing no signs of a bump.
The family had arrived back from the trip the day Oliver was born.
Daughter Lilly, who witnessed the surprise birth, said: “It was the most surreal and crazy experience.
“Just 48 hours before, my mum was horseback riding on a beach.
“She was wearing a bikini and we had no idea she was pregnant.
“Mum was in Krakow three weeks earlier doing 30,000 steps a day.
“The morning Oliver was born, I was sleeping and I could hear my mum screaming from the bathroom.
“When I went out, I did not expect to see my dad covered head to toe in blood and holding a baby.
“The bathroom looked like the scene of a murder.
“My mum was in shock for about three days but she’s been amazing.
“Even though she’s had three children, she said she had no idea she was in labour until she saw the head.”
Paul called an ambulance and both Leanne and Oliver were out of hospital within six hours.
Friends and family rallied together to buy essentials for the newborn so Leanne only needed to buy a pram.
Sportswear business owner Lilly said: “He’s got enough clothes to last him until he’s one.
“Everyone has been amazing but people didn’t believe us at first.”
Lilly said when she phoned her grandmother to tell her the news, she hung up believing it was a prank.
She said: “My dad said I better call my nan and she told me never to call her at 4am trying to wind her up and put the phone down.
“People thought we were joking.”
The family say that Oliver has given them a new lease of life.
Leanne said: “It’s the most amazing life now we have Oliver.
“We feel alive, like we have something to live for again.
“He’s keeping us young and because my other children are older, we have so much time for Oliver.
“It’s an amazing experience. It’s unbelievable.”
The family are currently in Puerto Rico and had to add an extra last-minute passenger after Oliver was born.
Lilly added: “We’re all absolutely obsessed with him.
“Because me and my sisters are older, we don’t really make a fuss of Christmas anymore but this year it was magical because we had Oliver.
“We love him so much and my dad finally got his boy after 26 years.
“He says he feels like he had everything to live for and feels alive again.”
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