#Mom flabbergasted after ‘kidney stone’ turns out to be baby

Putting the “kid” in “kidney stone.”

A Massachusetts mother was completely unaware she was pregnant until giving birth while sitting on the toilet — and, even then, she wasn’t entirely sure. 

“I look in the toilet and I still didn’t know what it was,” Peabody resident Melissa Surgecoff, 38, told the Daily Mail of the toilet-water birth.

The (un)expectant mother and her partner of seven years — fiancé Donnie Campbell, 37 — had reportedly always wanted kids, but planned to wait until after their wedding, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, their bundle of joy had other ideas. The fiasco began on the morning of March 8 when Surgecoff began to experience severe cramping, USA Today reported. Due to her history of irregular periods, she initially chalked up the symptoms to her menstrual cycle arriving five months late. 

However, when the poor soul’s pain began to worsen, she suspected something else was afoot. The mama-to-be told Campbell to dial 911 as she took refuge in the loo.  

“I’m sitting on the toilet, screaming, and I’m telling myself this is way beyond a menstrual cycle,” Surgecoff said. “This has to be a kidney stone.”

Before EMTs could arrive, however, the oblivious baby carrier felt something release from her body. 

Initially unsure the discharge was a baby, Surgecoff told USA Today that she “thought it was an organ” when she peered into the toilet. Meanwhile, her equally clueless husband mistook their newborn for a pile of feces, per the Daily Mail. 

After mulling the moment over, Campbell eventually realized “there’s a baby in the toilet,” he told NBC’s WBTS in Boston.

Shortly thereafter, the EMTs arrived and whisked the parents and their surprise child off to the hospital, where doctors confirmed that it was a healthy baby boy. The couple has since named him Liam. 

In retrospect, the grateful mother says she should’ve recognized the swollen feet, weight gain and other “clear-cut” pregnancy signs which, at the time, she attributed to pandemic-induced weight gain. 

“This is our first and probably last child,” Campbell said.

Incog-natal episodes aren’t as rare as people think. Known as a “cryptic pregnancy,” the phenomenon occurs when women don’t realize they’re pregnant until the last weeks of gestation. In some instances — like Sturgecoff’s — the mother remains unaware they’ve got a bun in the oven until the moment they give birth.

In 2019, an Australian woman said she didn’t know she was 37 weeks pregnant until she delivered a healthy baby, while another mother was flabbergasted to find out that her “bout of food poisoning” was actually a cryptic pregnancy.