First-time mom says she didn’t know she was pregnant until going into labor

SURPRISE, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) - An Arizona woman says she got the surprise of a lifetime last month when she found out she was pregnant.

Taylor Dobbins says she didn’t have any warning signs regarding the pregnancy until she was giving birth.

It’s a story that seems straight out of an episode of “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant.”

So-called cryptic pregnancies are rare, but they do happen. Studies suggest about one in 2,500 women don’t know they’re pregnant until delivery.

Dobbins said her new son Noble was born weighing 8 pounds, 15 ounces a little more than two weeks ago.

Life forever changed in a matter of hours for the first-time mother.

On May 18, Dobbins said she woke up in pain but went to work anyway.

However, the pain kept getting worse and was eventually so intense that she went to the emergency room, thinking maybe she had appendicitis.

“I’m like something is really wrong here,” she said when looking back that day.

Dobbins said nurses ran some tests and then a doctor gave her the unexpected news that she was expecting.

‘I said, ‘Excuse me?’” Dobbins recalled.

But the news was even more shocking as the medical team told her that she was 38 weeks and five days into the pregnancy.

“I was speechless. I was like, there’s no way,” she said.

The 24-year-old said she then started to worry about having no prenatal care.

“I was concerned that he was going to come out missing some fingers or some toes,” she said.

Dobbins calls Noble’s good health a miracle.

“The best gift, honestly,” she said.

She said she remembers feeling a flood of emotions the first time she held him.

“He was perfect. He stopped crying instantly the minute I grabbed him,” Dobbins said.

Now, she’s doing her best to navigate motherhood, coping with humor, and leaning on the go.

“Was this the way that I planned it? No, but will we be OK once we figure it out? For sure,” she said. “It’s definitely going to be a process though.”

According to Dobbins, she had a miscarriage a few years ago and ever since her cycle has been irregular. So, it wasn’t out of the norm for her to not have one for a while leading up to Noble’s birth.

Her family has since set up a GoFundMe account to assist the new mom and her son.