Ebony Stevenson can brag that the delivery of her baby girl, Elodie, was completely painless.
But that’s because the teenage mom was in a coma during her delivery. And unlike the ugly story of an Arizona woman who gave birth while in a vegetative state, there’s an unlikely but totally innocent explanation for Stevenson’s delivery.
The 18-year-old college student from Manchester, England, was rushed to hospital in December after suffering from seizures. To her mother Sheree’s surprise, doctors diagnosed Stevenson with preeclampsia, a high blood pressure condition often associated with pregnancy.
Stevenson had not realized she was pregnant because of her rare medical condition. The teen has two uteruses, and one continued to menstruate while the other closer to her back carried her baby girl.
The condition, called uterus didelphys, only affects about one in 3,000 women. It was actually a small miracle that Stevenson conceived a child in the first place since one of her uteruses has no working fallopian tube.
The teen also hadn’t suffered from morning sickness, or developed a noticeable baby bump, despite little Elodie being fully developed and weighing 7 pounds 10 ounces at birth.
While Stevenson was in a coma that would last for four days, she underwent an emergency c-section and gave birth to baby Elodie.
"Waking up from a coma to be told I had been pregnant and had given birth to a baby girl was overwhelming, to say the least," Stevenson said in an interview. "Meeting my baby was so surreal. It felt like an out-of-body experience."
While Stevenson worried the bizarre circumstances would keep her from bonding with Elodie, she now says her daughter is "amazing," and they’re happy at home together.
Sheree, now a grandmother, is also happy that mother and child are in good condition.
"It was a strange moment because I had no time to prepare for it," she said about the surprise birth. "I was over the moon that she was happy and healthy, but couldn’t help but worry about my own little girl, who remained in a coma."
While most mothers prefer a little notice before giving birth, Stevenson said she wouldn’t change a detail of Elodie’s birth "for the world."
The new mother isn’t letting her bundle of joy slow her down either, as she plans to head back to school in February.
It just goes to show that when it rains, it pours, and sometimes life’s little surprises come in bunches.
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