DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I didn't realise I was pregnant until I gave birth in the shower.'

At 22 years old, Erin Carty had no plans to have children anytime soon. She was happy with her partner Dan and life was good as is.

Erin had always been someone who had irregular periods. So, when she had gone months without one, Erin thought nothing of it. I mean, sometimes she would only get one per year, so what was the big deal?

"It was just super hard for me to track my cycle," she tells Mamamia's newest podcast Diary of a Birth.

When Erin woke up with excruciating cramps one day, she chalked it up to it being time for her period. She never would have guessed the surprise that was on the way.

Listen to Erin's surprise birth story on Mamamia's Diary of a Birth podcast. Post continues below.

Erin's unexpected shower birth.

"I remember getting my uniform on and then sitting at the end of the bed being like, 'Oh, I actually can't work today. I'm going through waves of feeling okay, and then feeling absolutely terrible'," she said.

"The pain was in my back and I just remember thinking, 'Oh, I reckon this might be my appendix, because it was just moving kind of from one side to the other'."

Erin turned on the shower to find some relief, but the cramping intensified. She considered taking herself to the hospital, but she wasn't sure if she could drive.

At this point, pregnancy hadn't even crossed her mind. It must just be her appendix.

"Obviously, it could be a multitude of things, but I just didn't think at that point in time of anything else it could be," she said.

By the time Dan finally got home from work, Erin was in agony and went to take one final shower before deciding if they should go to the hospital.

"I was in there for a while, and then it was just it. I remember it happening so quickly to the point where you just need to essentially push and I remember thinking, 'I don't really know how this is happening, but I think there's no other explanation'," she said.

"It was just a weird battle in my mind of, am I giving birth to something right now or what's actually happening?"

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Erin was in excruciating pain to the point where she couldn't yell out to Dan for help. All that was going through her mind was: "I need to have this child."

"I remember being in the bathroom and then on the floor and just gave birth there, and then I remember screaming out to Dan," she said.

"He slid the door open and he just stood there for half a second."

Dan had just walked into utter chaos. Little Isla wasn't breathing and Erin was a mess.

"I don't think I've ever seen him turn that pale before," Erin said.

Quickly, fight or flight kicked in and Dan switched into gear. He called triple-0 and the operator talked him through what to do.

"He said we need an ambulance, my girlfriend has had a baby at home. And the guy was like, 'Oh, so how many weeks was she?' And Dan said, 'We didn't know she was pregnant'," Erin said.

Then, eventually, Erin and Dan hear this "amazing" little noise. Isla was breathing.

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"I'm not ready."

Isla was a full-term, healthy, big baby girl. But despite being glad she was in good health, Erin was overwhelmed and traumatised.

Within a day, she'd gone from a 22-year-old who'd recently finished her studies and was working at a pharmacy and as a model, to a new mother.

"I remember waking up, like, 12-15 hours later in the morning hoping that was a dream. I was like, that couldn't have happened," Erin said.

In the chaos of heading to hospital, Dan called his parents to break the news. He told them to pass the message on to Erin's parents to get to the hospital as soon as possible, but the message got lost in translation.

"They've called my parents, and this is now like 8pm or something, saying, 'You need to get to the hospital. Erin's hurt herself' … They rush to the hospital and Dan walked out and was like, 'Oh they're both fine' and Dad was like, 'What do you mean both of them?'"

When Dan broke the news, Erin's dad almost fainted. It took Erin a while to process what had happened, too.

"I think it took me three days to actually go down there to see her, because I was like, I don't want to, I'm not ready," she said.

Erin with baby Isla. Image: Erin Carty.

When she finally went to see little Isla, her heart melted. But adjusting to life as a new mother was not without its challenges.

Her first night alone with Isla was "really tough".

"You're in the maternity ward and the nurses, they can't be with you all the time. And I just remember she was crying overnight, and I was like, I don't know what to do."

Erin is just glad she had Dan to lean on. Throughout it all, he was her rock.

"I never felt isolated or like I was by myself in this," she said, adding it meant she could focus on trying to build a relationship with Isla.

Once the shock wore off, each day got a little bit easier.

"I just have so much love for this little baby."

Now, the family is happier than ever, with Dan and Erin recently getting married.

Dan and Erin with Isla on their wedding day. Image: Getty.

What is a cryptic or undetected pregnancy, and how does it happen?

It's easy to wonder how Erin could have no idea she was pregnant, but she says she didn't have many signs.

Throughout her pregnancy, Erin continued to work as a model, fitting into the size 8 garments she always had. Her body hardly changed. How was she to know there was a little baby growing inside?

"Everything still fit me… I remember later on thinking, 'Oh this shirt feels a little bit tighter… it's fine, I'll just do more at the gym,'" she said.

Undetected pregnancies are more likely to occur in someone who doesn't have regular, predictable menstrual cycles, like Erin.

Mamamia's in-house expert Melbourne-based paediatrician Dr Daniel Golshevsky tells us, while they do happen, they're not common.

"There was a study out of South Australia a few years ago that showed an incidence of about one in roughly 1,500 births in Australia. In Germany there was a similar study. It was close to one in 2,500, so huge variability, which means we don't really know how common and uncommon they are, but they certainly happen," Dr Golly said.

"I've been doing this for decades and I've seen one and I wasn't even a doctor yet. I was a medical student.

"These surprise pregnancies have got different names depending on what they are, so you know, in this case, we call it an undetected pregnancy. This is where it is a complete surprise to everyone, especially the mother. In America they use the term cryptic, which is fascinating."

The most common early signs of pregnancy are fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and weight gain. If you think you might be pregnant, the best thing to do is contact a healthcare provider.

For more stories from Diary of a Birth click here.

Feature image: Instagram/@erincarty_.