A woman who thought her stomach pain was down to some dodgy food was shocked to find out that she was actually having a baby.
Tilda Kantala, from Finland, woke up in bed to a ‘small burning pain’ followed by an urge to push.
The 23-year-old told Jam Press: ‘I thought it was just from eating something bad – or something that my stomach couldn’t handle. It wasn’t like normal contractions, but then came a very familiar feeling – the urge to push.
‘That’s when I figured out that I was in labour and about to give birth to a baby or babies.’
Tilda, who is already a single mum to two-year-old Aleia, was staying in a summer cottage with her family at the time.
When the pain started, she called out for her mum.
‘She came into my room and saw me in pain and about to push for the first time. She asked: “Are you pregnant!?” and I answered: “I guess so,” Tilda added.
‘Then she looked and she saw the baby’s head already and said: “I see the head and a lot of black hair.”
Tilda’s uncle called for an ambulance, but while he was on the phone baby Alec arrived – within eight minutes of the pain starting.
When the paramedics got to the scene, they took both mum and baby to the hospital to get checked over.
The single mum hadn’t considered her slight weight gain was down to a pregnancy. And because she hadn’t received any checks during the previous nine months, doctors at the hospital had to carry out all kinds of tests.
She added: ‘I was confused, scared, anxious. I was alone already, a single mother for my daughter and now another one was coming into our lives.
‘Luckily, the baby was perfectly fine and healthy.’
Due to the unexpected arrival, Tilda had to quickly purchase a car seat from Facebook Marketplace – and the seller even dropped it off at the hospital.
She said: ‘It was pretty difficult to buy everything in such a hurry but I managed it pretty well, in my opinion, and I’m lucky to have my parents and other relatives help with buying everything.’
Now at three months, baby Alec is thriving and Tilda is over the initial shock.
She added: ‘I’ve come to terms with what happened.
‘It took a few weeks but I’m fine with it now. I’m a happy single mum-of-two.’