A 19-year-old college student who thought she was infertile spoke of her shock to learn that she was actually nine months pregnant, just hours before giving birth, passing off her symptoms as menstrual cramps and weight gain in quarantine.
Mother of one Kate Schmittling, University of Toledo sophomore Ohiowelcomed her one-year-old son in February 2021, however, she recently opened up about the unique circumstances of his arrival in tik tak video, recalling her horror at learning that she was not only pregnant, but due to give birth within a few hours.
The student, now 20, is from Michiganrecalled gaining some weight, which she thought was simply due to her eating unhealthy foods and skipping the gym due to COVID-19 pandemic.
She said she was on birth control pills and had light spotting throughout her pregnancy, which she thought was her period, so it never occurred to her that she was expecting a baby.
The doctor had also previously told Kate that she couldn’t have a baby, which is why she was stunned when she found herself in labor after visiting the emergency room on February 16, 2021.
A 19-year-old college student who had previously been told by doctors she was infertile was shocked to find she was nine months pregnant just hours before she was due.
Kate Schmitling, a sophomore at the University of Toledo in Ohio, had no idea she was carrying a baby for nine months and was passing off her symptoms as menstrual cramps and quarantine weight gain.
She ended up in the hospital because she was experiencing severe cramps and pain in her stomach, and left with her newborn son, whom she named Sebastian.
Kate recalled gaining some weight, which she believed was due to an unhealthy diet during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the photo she is eight months pregnant.
“The doctors in the emergency room were like, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re having a baby right now,'” she recalled. New York Post recently. “I was very surprised.
‘[The doctors] said, “You’re in active labor and we need to get you to the maternity ward as soon as possible.”
She spoke about the experience tik tak recently, and she quickly went viral, reaching over 14 million views in a matter of days and leaving many people online in awe of her story.
“I’m having very severe menstrual cramps and I’m rushing to the emergency room thinking I’m dying,” she wrote in the clip, before showing a photo of her son.
It turns out that Kate had something called a mystery pregnancy — a mysterious pregnancy that goes unnoticed until the onset of labor — which happens to about one in 475 women. Flo.Health.
During an occult pregnancy, the symptoms are mild enough to pass as a temporary condition, and this usually occurs in people with hormonal imbalances.
Kate, who said she took birth control “religiously,” recalled being “totally shocked” when she found out she was about to become a mom.
She said that throughout her pregnancy she had small spotting, which she took for menstruation. She is depicted at the first month (left) and four months (right) of pregnancy.
Previously, her doctor had also told her that she could not have a child. Kate is pictured on the left a few months pregnant and on the right five months pregnant.
Kate ended up in the hospital because she had severe cramping and severe abdominal pain in February 2021 and was stunned when she discovered she was in labor.
“It’s very emotional,” she admitted to the Post. “I went from a regular college student to a mom in one day. I could not believe it.
“I was in shock, I can’t explain my emotions, because I can’t even insert emotions there, I don’t even know what to call it,” she also wrote on TikTok.
Kate said she gained some weight towards the end of her pregnancy, but certainly “didn’t look eight months pregnant.”
“We were in the middle of a pandemic, so any weight I put on, I thought it was quarantine weight,” she explained to the Post. “I didn’t eat very healthy food and didn’t exercise at all.”
She claimed on TikTok that she often had “stomach issues”, so she blamed everything she felt for it.
She was also later told that her placenta was “in front” of the baby, so she didn’t feel his kicks.
“I literally bled so it’s not really [occur to] me that I’m pregnant,” she said in another video.
“I took birth control. I probably shouldn’t have relied on birth control, but I did, but here we are.
Surprise! Kate, who said she took birth control “religiously,” recalled being “totally shocked” when she found out she was about to become a mom.
Oh baby: she gave birth to a boy named Sebastian and despite calling the situation ‘really scary’ she said she was grateful to have gone through it and that she is ‘blessed’ with what she has a son.
Kate had a so-called hidden pregnancy, which usually happens to people with hormonal imbalances and occurs in about one in 475 women.
“I didn’t put on crazy weight like most early pregnancies. Any weight I gained, I thought it was quarantine weight because I was literally locked in my dorm room and didn’t eat healthy food at all.
What is a hidden pregnancy?
- Hidden pregnancy is a mysterious pregnancy that goes unnoticed until the onset of labor.
- It occurs in about one in 475 women.
- During an occult pregnancy, the symptoms are mild enough to pass as a temporary condition, and this usually occurs in people with hormonal imbalances.
- If someone continues to take birth control during pregnancy, they may not show symptoms of pregnancy and therefore the pregnancy may be latent.
- Stress also affects hormones, so extreme stress can disrupt common pregnancy symptoms. Low body fat levels can also cause hormonal imbalances, which can lead to asymptomatic pregnancy.
- A source: Flo.Health
“I was on pills all the time. I took it religiously every morning at 10 am during breakfast.
“Obviously contraceptives are not 100 percent, they don’t always work. There is always a small chance that you can still get pregnant.
Kate said she had been bleeding throughout her pregnancy, and because her periods had been irregular all her life, she didn’t suspect a thing.
“You don’t have periods during pregnancy, yet 25 percent of pregnant women have bleeding during pregnancy,” she said on TikTok. “Besides, I’ve always had irregular periods.”
The only symptom she noticed as she reflected on her experience was a change in her emotions.
“I have emotions now, and I had emotions before, but definitely at that time I was pissed off by anything,” she recalls.
“I blamed it on being a college student in the middle of a fucking pandemic. I was stressed all the time, but I was definitely overly emotional.”
She said her family is “very supportive” and that her parents “love being grandparents” to little Sebastian, who recently celebrated his first birthday.
“Of course, everyone was very surprised, but my family and friends are very supportive,” she explained on TikTok.
She said that she and her father, who is also a 20-year-old student whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons, are excellent at raising children.
‘At first, [the] Dad was definitely shocked and surprised, as was everyone else,” she told the Post.
Kate answered a series of pregnancy questions on her TikTok account by posting a viral video about her that has been viewed more than 14 million times so far.
“But he and his family are very supportive and involved in Sebastian’s life and we both go to school and work part-time to make sure [Sebastian] continues to thrive.”
When someone asked her how she learned to “suddenly love a kid” who was “like a stranger” to her, she explained on TikTok, “It was a bit weird. To be honest, at first I didn’t even want to be around him and asked him to be in the nursery because I needed to process my thoughts.
“One of my lovely nurses (who was also a teen mom) told me whatever my choice is, I want to at least see the baby, which I did, and I’m so glad I did because it honestly made me face reality and process things better. Plus, I fell in love with him instantly.”
Even though she called the situation “really scary,” she said she was now grateful to have gone through with it.
“Even though the whole experience was really scary, I was very happy to know that I can have children and that my child is perfectly healthy,” she wrote in an interview with the Post.
She added on TikTok, “Sebastian is thriving and he’s so smart, such a good kid.” Love him so much, super blessed.”