Mom Gives Birth in Her Pants

by Sandy Maple (Subscribe to Sandy Maple's posts) Jun 10th 2009 2:00PM

Categories: Pregnancy & Birth, Weird But True

One surprised mom found a baby in her pants leg. Image: Corbis.

We've all heard stories of incredibly quick births that happen in the most unexpected places. Sometimes these impatient babies make their grand entrances while mom is at home, in a taxi cab, a parking lot or even the front yard. As incredible as those stories are, a woman in UK has them beat. Her daughter came into the world not just at home, but via the leg of her pants while she was still standing!

23-year-old Katherine Allen isn't exactly new at this baby birthing business. Already the mother of two sons, she felt pretty confident that she knew what she was doing when she went into labor on May 9. When her contractions first began, she called the hospital and was told to wait until they were seven and a half minutes apart before coming in. Considering the fact that her two previous labors had lasted up to twelve hours, this seemed reasonable to her.

I guess it didn't seem so reasonable to her soon-to-be-born daughter, who decided that right this very minute worked better for her. "I got to the bottom of the stairs and I just felt this massive urge to push when all of a sudden my waters broke all over the hallway carpet," says Allen.

In an instant, her partner, Alan Moore, reacted to what appeared to be lump traveling down the leg of Katherine's gray sweat pants. "I was watching Katherine about to start climbing the stairs when all of a sudden she started screaming saying the baby was coming. I couldn't believe my eyes when it appeared and rolled down her leg -- I was just thinking I can't let it hit the floor and dived to catch it."

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He sprang into action and scooped up 8 pound, 5 ounce Hannah just as she slid out of the bottom of Katherine's pants. Umbilical cord still attached and running up her leg, a shocked Katherine sat patiently on the stairs holding her new daughter until an ambulance arrived.

While dad cut the umbilical cord, paramedics and a midwife checked out mom and baby and found them both to be perfectly healthy. They didn't even have to go to the hospital!

Dad, of course, is thrilled about his experience assisting in the birth of his daughter. '"I feel like I have done more in a few hours with my daughter than some dads manage in the first few months -- it's exhausting but fantastic."

As for mom, she thinks gravity just might be the secret to easy childbirth. "My other births definitely weren't this easy and I will always recommend standing up to do it in future," she says.

Source

Comments (227)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)

princesa711 6-11-2009 @ 6:56AM

"was just thinking I can't let it hit the floor and dived to catch it."
dived?? i thought the past tense of the verb was dove...

jbjg24m 6-11-2009 @ 7:06AM

grammar police are out early this morning !!

MstrLN871 6-11-2009 @ 7:29AM

Only in the US is dove the past tense of dive, according to my Oxford English Dictionary. In England, where this couple is from, the proper past tense of dive is dived. Grammar police need to broaden their own cultural/educational horizons.

As to her being only 23 years old, with two children already and this newborn, with no husband, perhaps that's another matter.

CONRAD 6-11-2009 @ 7:34AM

The past tense is "dived."

Jennifer Randles 6-11-2009 @ 8:36AM

My mom had 2 boys, with hours of labor, then me. One cramp and she was sitting on my head. Stood up and there I was. Yes, it can happen. Hell, I always wished mine came that easy and quick. That was almost 52 years ago.
Also, who cares if it was dove or dived? Our American language is one of the toughest to learn. It could be dove (as in a bird) or dove (as in lunging). Think of all the other words that are pronounced differently, but have the same spelling.

regshan 6-11-2009 @ 9:00AM

Dive is in a direct quote so if he said divdeded that is exactly how the story should read.

David 6-11-2009 @ 9:46AM

No, "dove" is a pretty little bird. Look it up!

ashley 6-11-2009 @ 10:29AM

Oh geeeeeeezzzzzz......Who cares? Did it really affect the story in anyway?

greeneking 6-11-2009 @ 11:05AM

It's not. Look it up.

Janet 6-11-2009 @ 1:44PM

It's both/either - a number of past tense verbs are like this

Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): dived!dIvd \ ˈdīvd \ or dove!dOv \ ˈdōv \ , dived also dove

Example: pled or pleaded - Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): plead·ed!plE-dud \ ˈplē-dəd \ or pled also plead!pled \ ˈpled

Me 6-11-2009 @ 1:45PM

who cares? Apparently only you.

really062 6-11-2009 @ 2:07PM

First conrats to the parents, how exiciting and scary!!
Second to those of you who have nothing better then to sit here and talk about someones grammer, really get over it, how many times did you go back and spell check you comment!
Next, shame on those that made the comment about how many kids she has already and the fact that she is not married. Who are you to judge! Maybe all 3 kids are my the same father, and who's say to say they haven't been together longer!
Let these people enjoy this moment in life! Shame on all of you!

carol 6-11-2009 @ 4:07PM

nit pick, nit pick.... the point is he wanted to catch the baby. Get over yourself.

heather 6-11-2009 @ 7:50PM

This happened to my friend Amber-but she delivered while waqlking out of her elevator to her apartment building on her way to go to the hospital. Her hubby just took his shirt off and bam there she came right out.

sanityclause 6-12-2009 @ 8:15AM

I cannot believe that you can be so bold as to correct someones grammar when the gentleman was quoted about the birth of a child. I guess you are the type that likes to belittle people no matter what !!!!!!!

truestory4 6-12-2009 @ 12:01PM

I'm thinking that calling the baby it was a poor choice of words, myself

Irateredhead 6-12-2009 @ 1:56PM

Actually, either "dove" or "dived" is acceptable as the past tense of dive. "Dived" was the original past tense form of the word and is what you most commonly find in edited writing.

Most halfway educated people in the UK speak better English than we do here in the states, so it's understandable why you may have been confused.

And seriously, what does that have to do with the whole point of the story? In addition, why does it matter whether or not this woman is married, or what her age is, or any of this petty nonsense that people are talking about on this thread?

I really don't know why I bother reading these comments. They only serve to enrage normal people who actually THINK before they comment.

soulcage 6-11-2009 @ 7:18AM

An 8 pound 5 ounce newborn rolled down her leg and out the bottom of her pants? Yeah, right.....if she were wearing "Elelphant pants" maybe. Give me a break.