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Teenager Rushed To Hospital With 'Appendicitis' Gives Birth To Surprise Baby

Teenager Rushed To Hospital With 'Appendicitis' Gives Birth To Surprise Baby

Courtney Evans claims she had no noticeable bump and was taking the contraceptive pill

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

A teenager rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis was stunned when doctors told her she was in labour - and gave birth to a surprise baby just hours later.

Courtney Evans was on the pill and claims she had no idea she was pregnant with her first child due to having no noticeable bump.

The then 17-year-old and her partner, Bryn Tallett, rushed to hospital after she woke up suffering with shooting stomach pains and fearing she had appendicitis.

This isn't what appendicitis looks like, is it?
Kennedy News and Media

But Courtney was stunned when doctors reportedly told her she was 34 weeks pregnant and in labour with her son, explaining her lack of bump due to him being positioned in her back. Ouch.

Hours later Courtney gave birth to Leo Tallett who weighed 4lb 4oz, but spent four days in hospital to recover from the shock.

The stay-at-home mum, now 20, claims despite putting on a little weight and suffering severe heartburn, she had no morning sickness and put her absent periods down to being on the pill.

Courtney is sharing how she became mum to her 'little best friend', now three, to raise awareness of surprise pregnancies - and to highlight that contraception doesn't always work.

Courtney and Bryn with Leo.
Kennedy News and Media

Courtney, from Daventry, Northamptonshire, said: "I wouldn't change it for the world now, he's my little best friend. I found out in the hospital as I was giving birth, so the minute I found out I was pregnant I was in labour anyway.

"They put him on me and I couldn't hold him at first. It wasn't that I didn't love him, but I was in so much shock. I just needed a minute after giving birth to the child I didn't know I had. So when everyone was going 'here's your baby boy', I was just thinking, 'oh god, I don't know what to do'.

"I was in hospital for about four nights, not because of him but because of the situation and them wanting to keep an eye on me."

Mum-of-one Courtney said that when she gave birth to little Leo he was born 'en caul' - a rare occurrence that means he was delivered still inside the intact amniotic sac.

Courtney and Leo.
Kennedy News and Media

Courtney said: "Leo also came out in his bag, it's rare and people say it's lucky. He had nothing wrong with him, everything was perfect, and he didn't have jaundice. When we got home he didn't lose weight either, which was a big relief.

"I was in a lot of shock, we didn't even have one nappy, and I was living with my parents at this point. My mum and dad had to go out and buy everything, apparently they walked into Mothercare and thought 'what the hell is going on?'.

"Usually you have nine months to prepare but we had no time. It's mad looking back thinking 'how didn't I know?' but I can understand why I didn't. They say if you even wee too much it can cancel the pill out, it can be anything.

"Contraceptives aren't 100 percent anyway, there's still a chance of getting pregnant. I've been on the injections since I've had him and that seems to work for me, but different things work for different people."

Courtney was in labour when she found out she was pregnant.
Kennedy News and Media

Courtney claims before she had Leo she noticed she had gained a small amount of weight, but was used to seeing fluctuations and put it down to that.

When she woke up on the morning of September 24 2016 she complained to her partner, Bryn Tallett, that she had period pains.

Bryn, now 22, took Courtney to his mum Fiona Hibbs' house and she drove the teenager to Northampton General Hospital fearing that the shooting pains and cramping she was describing was appendicitis.

After discovering she was actually 34 weeks pregnant, just seven hours later at 23:11, Courtney first gazed into little Leo's eyes.

Courtney said: "When I woke up it felt like period pains, I just felt like I was having a bad stomach. I was on and off sleep as it was early hours in the morning waking me up. I woke up Leo's dad, my partner, and said, 'I'm in a lot of pain now'.

"We walked round to his mum's to see what she thought and she took me to hospital thinking it was my appendix. When we went into A&E though they didn't know the cause of the pain either, so they gave me morphine thinking it was my appendix as well.

"They didn't know because he was back-to-back so I didn't have a normal bump like you usually have with a pregnancy - my stomach hadn't changed at all. I'd put on weight, but it wasn't what you would usually expect if you were pregnant.

"I'm a bit bigger anyway so it wasn't just on my stomach, you wouldn't look at me and think I was pregnant, it was very weird. Another doctor came to look at me and felt my stomach and did a scan, they looked at me and said, 'that's your baby'. I remember saying 'are you joking?'.

"They took me into a separate room on my own and did a few tests and then they took me down to the labour ward. All they could see was his heartbeat and I had to have injections in my back for his lungs. They had his incubator waiting outside when I gave birth."

Kennedy News and Media

After Courtney returned home, she leaned heavily on her mum to learn how to look after a newborn, even needing lessons on how to bathe him correctly.

Courtney said: "I've never been around newborns in my family. My partner dealt with it a lot better than I did as I was in a lot more shock than he was.

"He held him and fed him and changed him straight away, but he's been brought up with little brothers. I'd never dealt with a baby in my life whereas he had.

"My family were amazing, parents can react in any way but I couldn't have done it without them and they helped us with buying things. I was living at their house so they got a room ready for him.

"I've got a house on my own now and we've lived here for two years, but the first year of his life we lived there and I couldn't have done it without them. Everybody told me I took to it really well, the first couple of weeks is just a blur to me looking back.

"I took every day as it came really - his feeds and baths - my mum has done it with me and my brother before, so she was telling me everything to do. She was helping me to hold his head in the bath and telling me how to feed him, everything like that.

"It didn't take me too long to adjust to it, after a few weeks I was enjoying it like any mum should."

Courney says Leo is the 'best thing' that's happened to her.
Kennedy News and Media

Despite Leo being her 'the best thing that's ever happened' to her, Courtney has decided she doesn't want any more 'surprise' children and opted to swap the pill for contraceptive injections.

Courtney said: "I've been on the injections since I've had him and that seems to work for me, but different things work for different people.

"I was worried about the pill not working and I wanted something to be a bit more secure. At this minute, I'm not ready to have another baby.

"The number of times I've told this story to people is crazy, if I go to the hairdressers, people still ask me about it. I only live in a small town so pretty much everyone knows I'm the one who had the surprise baby."

Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media

Topics: Baby, UK News, News, UK, Labour, Baby, UK News, News, UK, Labour