An Alaskan teenager named Journey Richardson had no idea she was pregnant when she began feeling some discomfort in her stomach. Only after she entered a tub did she notice a baby's head was beginning to crown. The nature of Richardson's childbirth forced her to cut the umbilical cord using her teeth and then use CPR to make her daughter, Finnley, take her first breaths.
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So, how could Richardson or even doctors not notice she was pregnant? Well, that is because of the fact that Journey Richardson has a retroverted uterus. According to Cleveland Clinic, a retroverted uterus is tilted towards the spine. This means that Richardson never noticed her belly grow when she became pregnant because of this same reason. Similarly, doctors never thought she was pregnant and attributed her irregular periods to ovarian cysts.
Going Into Labor
At around March 2023, Richardson began experiencing cramps. "I had dinner with my family for my mom's birthday on Saturday night and went back to the house I was dog sitting at, took some ibuprofen and thought 'it's going to go away, it's fine, it's just period cramps'," Richardson told the Daily Mail.
However, her cramping didn't stop whatsoever but kept getting worse. She woke up the very next day at around 4 a.m. Nevertheless, she had to go to work just some hours later. "I work 7 to 10am that morning and that shift was hell. It was so bad," Richardson said. "I thought that my ovarian cyst had ruptured, so I went back to my house and grabbed some Epsom salts to take a bath in to relieve the pain."
In the bath, Richardson began experiencing pain like she never felt before. She described having hallucinations due to the pain and screaming all the while. That is when she decided to feel the area to see if something had happened. That is when she felt Finnley's head and hair.
Finnley's Dramatic Birth
Richardson, who was 17 at the time, gave birth to Finnley right there in her tub. However, the baby was purple and wasn't breathing. Moreover, the placenta did not come out naturally from her uterus. She was bleeding profusely and, after Googling a bit, she knew something had to be done.
"I had no other option so I ended up having to bite it off and tied it with a hair tie, so I did the best I could in the circumstances that I had," Richardson said. It was a wise decision. She had previously administered CPR to Finnley. She had a good technique thanks to her father being an emergency medical technician.
Richardson called a friend instead of 911, who later did call emergency services. While nervous about what her father would think, the reality is that Richardson and Finnley have only received love and support from their family.
The Risks Of Cryptic Pregnancies
Cryptic pregnancies - that is, pregnancies that are not noticed - can be particularly dangerous because babies and mothers do not receive prenatal care of any type. Mothers could also consume alcohol, drugs, or other type of food or substances that could be harmful to them and their babies.
In this case, Finnley was born with Klippel-Feil Syndrome, a condition that made Finnley's seven vertebrae to be fused. She now has to endure surgeries that will seek to strengthen her spine and create space for Finnley's spinal cord and nerves to not suffer any damage.
Be that as it may, Journey Richardson and her family are all about Finnley, loving her as they have never loved before. "I love Finn more than I've ever loved anything in my life, and I'm very grateful I had her in the way that I did because I wasn't planning on ever having kids and I don't think I would've gotten to experience this love if I didn't have her the way that I did," Richardson said.
