Beth thought she’d gained weight from eating too much. Then she woke up in middle of night ... and had twins!
WHEN she woke in the middle of the night, Beth Bamford thought she merely needed the toilet.
But once in the bathroom, she had the surprise of her life as she discovered she was giving birth... to twins.
The 21-year-old, already a mother of two, had not realised she was pregnant. Miss Bamford yelled to her partner for help.
But she was unable to rouse Andy Morris, 22, from his slumbers. Luckily she had her phone to hand and was able to call 999.
A call handler talked her through the delivery of 5lb 10oz Willow and 5lb 1oz Freya before paramedics arrived. Miss Bamford began to panic as Freya arrived feet-first and was not breathing. But on the call handler’s advice she gave the baby a slight shake and Freya took her first breath.
Miss Bamford, a DIY store assistant, said yesterday: ‘It was a big shock but a nice surprise. I didn’t know I was pregnant at
‘I didn’t know I was pregnant at all’
all.’ She was still having her periods, was not eating any more than usual and put the small amount of weight gain down to fat.
‘I was just doing normal things. I was lifting heavy things.’ She had visited the doctor several times feeling ill but says neither she nor the GP realised she was pregnant.
‘Doctors thought I had a viral infection. I don’t feel angry. It didn’t pop into my head I could be pregnant.’ Miss Bamford, who already had daughters Elsa-Mae, three, and Alivia, two, lives in Stoke-on-Trent with Mr Morris and his mother.
On February 21, she woke with pains but said nothing to her partner.
‘I went downstairs to get a glass of water and the pain got worse and I thought I needed the toilet,’ she said. She was sitting on the toilet when Willow arrived. Nobody was answering me when I was shouting and I couldn’t wake my partner up because I was on the floor with the babies and couldn’t move,’ she said. ‘I called the emergency services and they talked me through it as I gave birth to the first one.
‘They told me I needed to get the placenta out. I pushed again but another baby came out – it was a shock.
‘It was a rush. One moment I was getting pain and the next moment I have got two new babies. Andy eventually woke up and walked into the bathroom and just looked at me. He went to his mum’s bedroom and said, “Beth’s got two babies in the bathroom”.’
Paramedics attended and asked for her notes, wanting to know when she had been due. ‘They assumed I knew that information and had notes, but I didn’t,’ Miss Bamford said. ‘I told them I didn’t know I was pregnant or having twins, but nobody believed me – even my partner thought I had hidden it from him.’
Miss Bamford, Willow and Freya were taken to hospital, where they spent a week being checked over.
Five months on, the girls are doing well. Doctors believe she was around 37 weeks pregnant when she gave birth to the nonidentical twins.