Next time you’re questioning whether you have over-packed while you’re loading up the car for a camping trip, just know that it’s best to prepare for every eventuality in the wilderness.
As you never know, you could get caught by surprise and end up giving birth in a tent without having any inkling you were even pregnant, like this woman did.
Zoe Doyle, 38, headed onto the campsite in Hayling Island, Hampshire, with two children and ended up walking away with three – so yeah, maybe that extra packet of wet wipes will come in handy after all.
The mum ended up welcoming her baby girl in the early hours of the morning with the help of her husband Stuart after initially presuming it was a dodgy chicken curry she had eaten which was causing her excruciating stomach pains.
The couple, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, had travelled over an hour away from their home for a week-long camping trip with their two kids when all the chaos unfolded.
The nursery practitioner explained that a few days into their break in the great outdoors, she was woken up at 5.00am one morning with severe pains in her stomach.
Parents Zoe and Stuart came home from their family camping trip with an unexpected arrival (Kennedy News and Media)
But as she’d tucked into a takeaway the night before, she simply thought that her cramps were a result of the meal not agreeing with her.
At this point, Zoe still had no idea she was pregnant as she’d had ‘no symptoms’ – however, due to the agony she was in, she began to fear that she may be suffering a miscarriage and decided to wake her husband up.
The mum explained: “I woke up and thought that chicken we had the night before has really upset my stomach. I couldn’t get to the main toilets, and we have a little portaloo toilet in the tent. I just stayed there.
“I thought it was just tummy pains but it kept getting worse and worse. I knew something wasn’t right.
“There was so much blood, I thought I was having a miscarriage. Little did I know I was doing all the contractions on my own on the portaloo.”
Zoe recalled how she then felt the overwhelming urge ‘to push’, while her husband Stuart decided to investigate further.
“I leaned on all fours and my husband saw a head,” the mum said.
The mum, 38, explained she thought her labour pains were food poisoning after she ate a dodgy chicken curry (Kennedy News and Media)
“He had to help deliver her in the tent and cut her umbilical cord in the tent and wrap her up with what we had. I did it all on my own. I felt like Mother Mary giving birth outdoors. It was just so bizarre.
“She literally came out and I remember thinking, ‘What has just happened?’ I was thinking, ‘How did I not know?’ “Everything I shouldn’t have done, I did.”
The pair rushed to hospital with their unexpected new addition, where doctors confirmed she was healthy despite her mother having no idea she was even pregnant.
Adorably, Zoe and Stuart decided to pay homage to the spot she was born in – Hayling Island – and so they named their 8lbs 14oz tot Hayley Doyle.
Although they were absolutely buzzing to complete their family, the couple were obviously baffled that Zoe had been pregnant for nine-months without her realising.
“I had absolutely no symptoms,” she said.”My period was light but I just put it down to stress and I still had them every month. I had no cravings or anything.”
Stunned dad Stuart helped deliver their daughter in their tent (Kennedy News and Media)
“I’d gained a bit of weight but I just put it down to having a few more snacks in the evening,” Zoe continued. “I didn’t have a noticeable bump and no one mentioned anything.
“There was no morning sickness, there was no nausea, there was nothing. It really was a hidden pregnancy.”
Zoe had even been on holiday to Turkey in June as she had no idea she was with child.
She explained that her and Stuart had always wanted to have another kid, but had later decided against it after doctors warned her husband’s diabetes may impact their chances to conceive.
The mum added: “So when she came, I thought how on earth is she here? She fought against all the odds to be here. “I was on and off the pill but because we were told our odds of getting pregnant were unlikely, we didn’t think much of it. “She was such a massive surprise. She’ll have the most amazing story to tell when she’s older.
“I never used to believe cryptic pregnancy stories when I read about them until it happened to me. She just fits in perfectly like it was all meant to happen.”
Zoe said medics informed her they reckon she carried little Hayley ‘high up’, hence why she didn’t feel her move.
Either way, the Doyles aren’t going to be forgetting this camping trip – that’s for sure.
