Shock as Woman Who Feared She Had Pneumonia Is Told She's 39 Weeks Pregnant

A woman who feared she had pneumonia was shocked after doctors told her she was 39 weeks pregnant.

The 26-year-old had not known she was pregnant when she was admitted to a hospital in São José dos Campos in Brazil with chest pains and difficulty breathing, Brazilian news outlet Globo reported.

"I went to the hospital quickly, I thought I was going to have an exam and then I could go back to work, but the doctors told me that I was 39 weeks pregnant," the woman told the news outlet.

The baby boy was born the day after she was admitted to the hospital, on June 22. The woman had even been on birth control at the time, as—already a mother of two—she had not planned to have any more children.

Neither the woman nor those close to her suspected the pregnancy at all. The woman had even received treatment for a spider bite earlier in the year, where she had to get several blood tests, Globo reported. Even then, the pregnancy went unnoticed by doctors.

She began taking antibiotics and noticed a small weight gain. Still, she did not suspect she was pregnant.

"I didn't feel pain, I didn't feel moving, kicking, nothing. I was going to work normally. No one believed me when I told them, they thought I was joking, they thought I already knew, but I didn't. My mother had no reaction, she froze when I told her, " the woman, who works as a hairdresser, told Globo.

Despite the surprise delivery, the woman said her other children are already looking forward to meeting the new arrival, who has been named Théo.

"When I found out it was a shock, but then I got nervous, anxious, and worried if everything was okay with the baby because no tests were done. Thank God he was born perfect, big, chubby, healthy, " the mother told the news outlet.

This phenomenon is known as a cryptic pregnancy. It is extremely uncommon but has been known to occur before.

Studies estimate about 1 in 475 pregnancies go unnoticed until 20 weeks. To not notice the pregnancy until labor is even rarer, with around 1 in 2,500 pregnancies going unnoticed until then, according to Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center based in Ohio.

Cryptic pregnancies go unnoticed because they typically lack symptoms.

They are more common in those with hormonal imbalances. In this case, the woman's hormonal birth control may have caused this.

Women who experience cryptic pregnancies will also mistake pregnancy bleeding for their period. Bleeding can actually happen at any time in pregnancy, usually when the embryo is attached to the uterus wall, causing its lining to shed.

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