Klara Dollan, then 22, woke up at 4am on the day she was due to start a new job, thinking her agonising stomach cramps were her period returning with a vengeance. She had stopped taking the pill about two weeks earlier after more than six months of continuous use. Despite the pain, she took paracetamol and commuted from Cricklewood in north-west London into the city.
Hours later, Dollan gave birth alone in her bathroom after being sent home from work sick. A neighbour heard her screams and called an ambulance. She was taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where she cradled a healthy newborn girl, Amelia, now three. Her mother's response when called was: 'But you weren't pregnant this morning!'
Dollan had broken up with her boyfriend five months before giving birth and was used to not getting periods. She had gained a little weight but attributed it to the breakup. A mirror selfie taken at seven and a half months shows no visible pregnancy. 'There was nothing showing. I wasn't feeling it. I had no symptoms, no cravings, no nausea – nothing,' she said. The first thought of pregnancy crossed her mind only as she saw the baby's head emerging.
This phenomenon, known as cryptic pregnancy, is more common than many realise. A 2002 paper in the British Medical Journal estimated it occurs in about one in every 2,500 pregnancies, suggesting around 320 cases annually in the UK. Professor Helen Cheyne of the University of Stirling, a midwifery expert, said: 'This is not a particularly unusual phenomenon. It's rare – but it's not that rare.' She recalled a case from the early 1980s where a woman who had previously given birth did not realise she was pregnant until labour, attributing symptoms to age.
Cryptic pregnancies can happen to women of any size, not just those who are significantly overweight. The surprise is often met with disbelief, but as Dollan's story illustrates, it is a genuine medical occurrence that leaves mothers in absolute shock.
