Real Life

Marathon runner gives birth…unexpectedly

Marathon runner gives birth… unexpectedly

When aspiring marathon runner and mother-of-two Trish Staine started experiencing unbearable back pain, the last thing she expected was that she was pregnant. But just 24 hours later she was cradling a baby girl.

The 33-year-old US mum, who initially put the extreme pain down to a two-hour half-marathon training session, said she had no idea she was pregnant and had gained no weight in the months before.

“I had a sore back Sunday evening. I had taken a hot shower and I was dealing with it,” Trish said.

“Monday morning I woke up and had more back pain and as the day went on it got worse. I thought I should go to the ER. I thought I had ruptured a disc or pulled a muscle.”

But Trish decided to continue on with her day. It wasn’t until later in the evening, when her pain became unbearable, that her husband called an ambulance.

“I felt like I was dying. I didn’t know what was going on,” she said.

Once in the emergency room, Trish and her husband were stunned to discover that the nurses could detect a foetal heartbeat.

“I said no, no that’s impossible,” Trish said of her reaction to the news.

Trish was taken to the delivery room and said in “what felt like five minutes” her daughter was born, weighing 2.9 kilos and 48 centimetres long.

Born five weeks premature, the pair will be able to take home their baby – who they named “Mira”, short for miracle – in about a week. Trish says both her and her husband are still in shock.

“He’s still in shock. Everybody is teasing him,” Trish said. “I definitely thought I was done having kids!”

The pair already have two children, a seven-year-old daughter and a son, 11. Trish is also stepmum to her husband’s three boys aged 17, 19 and 20.

Your say: Have you or has anyone you know experienced something similar and not realised you were pregnant?

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