When Judy Brown rushed to the hospital Wednesday, she assumed the pain she faced was the byproduct of a gall stone or "massive blockage" in her body, according to ABC News.
But medical staff at Beverly Hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts, found Brown, 47, had a baby inside of her rather than a blockage, Peter Holley wrote for The Washington Post. That baby was set to come soon with Brown having no knowledge she was actually in labor.
"It was a little scary getting into the hospital thinking something really bad was going on," Brown told Gillian Mohney of ABC News. "To understand and take in that (I was) pregnant and was about to go into labor ... it was very overwhelming."
Alexandra Sifferlin wrote for Time that Brown gave birth an hour after hearing the news and that she and her husband of 22 years named their daughter Carolyn Rose.
The surprise has the Browns in a "scramble" to purchase parenting musts such as a car seat, stroller and bassinet, according to The Post. Brown's circumstance also has people asking this: How rare is it for a woman to not know she's pregnant?
Kimberly Gecsi, an obstetrician and gynecologist at University Hospitals Case Center in Cleveland, told ABC News "it's possible" for a few reasons.
"People don't know sometimes or they're in denial about it, and denial can be pretty strong," Gecsi stated in ABC News' report.
The Post indicated Brown noticed her body's changes, but she wrote off weight gain as part of aging and said being pregnant "never crossed her mind."
"I felt like I was turning into my mother," Brown told ABC News.
Time noted The Office of Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says women can get pregnant regardless of age if they still have periods. Brown said being in her mid-40s made carrying a child seem unlikely.
Jordan G. Teicher wrote for Slate of a woman going into labor after running 10 miles while training for a half-marathon. Such cases aren't unheard of, but most pregnancies are detected in the first 20 weeks.
Still, Slate cited in the British Medical Journal that surprise births in Berlin happen "about three times more often than triplets."
"The authors came up with an estimate of 1 in 300 to 600 pregnancies, but to be more conservative, since the probability of triplets in America is about 1 in 8,000, you could estimate that the probability of not detecting a pregnancy before labor is about 1 in 2,700," Slate's report read.
Women having irregular periods and the fact many pregnancy signs could be something else also explain a case like Brown's, according to Slate. Fetal movement, morning sickness and weight gain all comprise symptoms for other body changes.
But medical staff at Beverly Hospital in Beverly, Massachusetts, found Brown, 47, had a baby inside of her rather than a blockage, Peter Holley wrote for The Washington Post. That baby was set to come soon with Brown having no knowledge she was actually in labor.
"It was a little scary getting into the hospital thinking something really bad was going on," Brown told Gillian Mohney of ABC News. "To understand and take in that (I was) pregnant and was about to go into labor ... it was very overwhelming."
Alexandra Sifferlin wrote for Time that Brown gave birth an hour after hearing the news and that she and her husband of 22 years named their daughter Carolyn Rose.
The surprise has the Browns in a "scramble" to purchase parenting musts such as a car seat, stroller and bassinet, according to The Post. Brown's circumstance also has people asking this: How rare is it for a woman to not know she's pregnant?
Kimberly Gecsi, an obstetrician and gynecologist at University Hospitals Case Center in Cleveland, told ABC News "it's possible" for a few reasons.
"People don't know sometimes or they're in denial about it, and denial can be pretty strong," Gecsi stated in ABC News' report.
The Post indicated Brown noticed her body's changes, but she wrote off weight gain as part of aging and said being pregnant "never crossed her mind."
"I felt like I was turning into my mother," Brown told ABC News.
Time noted The Office of Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says women can get pregnant regardless of age if they still have periods. Brown said being in her mid-40s made carrying a child seem unlikely.
Jordan G. Teicher wrote for Slate of a woman going into labor after running 10 miles while training for a half-marathon. Such cases aren't unheard of, but most pregnancies are detected in the first 20 weeks.
Still, Slate cited in the British Medical Journal that surprise births in Berlin happen "about three times more often than triplets."
"The authors came up with an estimate of 1 in 300 to 600 pregnancies, but to be more conservative, since the probability of triplets in America is about 1 in 8,000, you could estimate that the probability of not detecting a pregnancy before labor is about 1 in 2,700," Slate's report read.
Women having irregular periods and the fact many pregnancy signs could be something else also explain a case like Brown's, according to Slate. Fetal movement, morning sickness and weight gain all comprise symptoms for other body changes.