Mum, 26, who thought she was ill with flu shocked after suddenly giving birth in the bath
A MUM who thought she was ill with flu gave birth to a healthy baby girl – but had no idea she was pregnant.
Swade Page, 26, was “shocked” when she delivered little Safiyah Lang in her bathtub on March 2 last year after having no bump, morning sickness or contraction pains.
Swade, from Bridgwater, Somerset, had been helping to organise the local county carnival the day before, and felt a cold coming on in the evening.
She told The Sun Online: “On Sunday I felt a bit ill, like I was coming down with the flu.
“The workers at the carnival said to go home and get some rest, so I did.
“Then at 5am, I woke up with terrible cramping pains, so I went to lie on the sofa and had a cup of tea and two paracetamol.
“The pain became constant, but there were no contraction pains. My husband came in and said he would call an ambulance – but they said it would take three hours to get here as they were really busy.”
Swade ran a bath for herself as hubby Koalan Lang, 26, got the kids ready for school – but then he heard a scream from the bathroom.
She added: “He came into the bathroom and said: ‘Oh my God, there’s a head between your legs!’
“He called the paramedics and asked if they could come over urgently.
“I was so confused, I’d hardly had any sleep. I really didn’t know what was going on.”
Hero dad Koalan then “took control” of the situation – and managed to successfully deliver baby Saffiyah at 5.7lb in the bathtub with the help of one of the hospital’s phone operators.
Swade said: “We both just looked at each other and said, ‘what’s just happened?’”
The mum-of-three was taken to Musgrove Park hospital for tests – and was told by a midwife that she’d had a “cryptic pregnancy”.
'CRYPTIC PREGNANCY'
A “cryptic pregnancy” is defined by HealthLine as a “pregnancy that conventional medical testing methods fail to detect”, and low levels of pregnancy hormones mean that symptoms are very mild or even impossible to notice.
According to the BBC, around one in 2,500 births a year are “cryptic births”.
Swade said she had no pregnancy symptoms at the time, adding: “I felt completely normal.
“I did a pregnancy test earlier in the year and it came back negative, so I thought nothing of it.”
Swade, baby Safiyah and the rest of the family remained in the hospital for tests for two days, and were then sent home.
Mental health support worker Swade said the hospital and the midwives had been really supportive throughout the “surreal” experience.
The family have since joked that dad Koalan, who works for various employment agencies, should retrain as a midwife after his heroic display.
Swade added: “Koalan said: ‘Well I’m now a fully qualified midwife. I’m putting that on my CV!’”
“If that was me, I wouldn’t have known what to do. I’d have said wait for the paramedics.”
Swade, who is also mum to Phoenix, 5, and one-year-old Khaleesi, said she was “delighted” with little Saffiyah.
It’s like it was meant to be. She just slots right in
She added: “It’s like it was meant to be. She just slots right in.
“She’s brought so much to our lives, and her sisters absolutely adore her.”
Just weeks after Saffiyah was born, the country went into the first national lockdown – meaning Swade and Koalan’s parents weren’t allowed to visit their new granddaughter regularly until restrictions were eased in June.
Swade admitted this was “sad”, but said that her mum Lindsey and dad Michael, as well as Koalan’s family, had been really supportive during the pandemic and spoke on FaceTime everyday.
The mum-of-three thinks that more should be done to raise awareness of “cryptic pregnancies”.
She told The Sun Online: “I think it could be brought up more in sex education.
“It’s one of those things that gets brushed under the carpet.”
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