From Pub Nights to Parenthood: How I Went from Single and Sipping Wine to Welcoming a Surprise Baby in Just 48 Hours!

LOUISE Eccleston was living her care-free, single lifestyle, in her mid-30s and child-free.

That was until she gave to a baby she had no idea she was carrying, merely hours after a hangover takeaway with her mum.

Louise Eccleston had no idea she was pregnant with baby Lincoln until she was giving birth. She is pictured holding him for the first time Credit: Bauer media Lincoln was born premature and with complex medical needs due to lack of oxygen at birth Credit: Bauer media

Then 35 years old, Louise was still living at her mum’s house in Stoke-on-Trent, .

She had accepted she would “never have kids of her own”, and had “become a cat mum instead”, with a new kitten, Albie.

“It meant that in a single day, I went from being carefree, single and childless, to a terrified mum, learning medical terms, my world revolving around my son,” Louise, now 37, tells Sun .

It was like any other weekend, in April 2024. Louise got a tattoo in memory of her late nan, went out with friends for drinks, and had a takeaway with her mum.

She had just gotten a tattoo and spent the evening with her friends before the sudden labour pains began Credit: Bauer Media Louise with her mum Diane, who delivered baby Lincoln in Louise’s bedroom Credit: Bauer media

She says: “While I didn’t have any kids of my own, my two sisters did and I doted on my nieces and nephews. Though I also loved being footloose and fancy free.”

She drank and cocktails before sleeping it off at her friend’s house, then returned home the next day, looking forward to a takeaway.

“When the takeaway was cleared away, Mum headed to bed and I went to my room to watch telly,” says Louise.

“But as I flicked through the channels, my stomach started to hurt, so I headed to the loo.”

Thinking she had come on her period, Louise took paracetamol and hoped the pain would pass as she lay curled up in bed.

“But as the night wore on, it just got worse and worse,” she says.

She called for her mum, Diane, who initially refused to call an ambulance “for a heavy period.”

But when she saw how much pain Louise was in, she changed her mind.

“She knew I wasn’t one to make a fuss over nothing so she grabbed her phone and rang 999.”

The call handler asked Louise if she could be .

“I was on the, wasn’t seeing anyone and had my regularly,” she says.

Then, the operator was instructing Louise’s mum to take her underwear off and look for anything.

Puzzled, she said no – until she shrieked and said, ‘I can see something but I don’t know what it is!’.

“The call handler calmly said, ‘That’ll be the head’,” Louise remembers.

It wasn’t long before a baby “flew out” of Louise, her mum by her side.

“I looked down on to the bed and saw a tiny, grey little thing,” says Louise.

Lousie when she arrived at hospital, terrified her baby was dead – only to find him incubated Credit: Bauer Media Louise says: “I now know I experienced a cryptic pregnancy, where a woman doesn’t know she’s expecting.” Credit: Bauer media

“His head was huge compared to his spindly body. He didn’t move, didn’t make a noise.”

Louise’s mum was talked through on the phone and began chest compressions on the baby while Louise panicked.

“Mum worked away on him until he finally let out the smallest gasp,” she says.

“Moments later, paramedics began pounding on both the front and back door simultaneously. Six of them poured into my bedroom.”

The baby was taken to hospital, a 30-minute drive away, while Louise desperately asked the paramedics if they would survive.

“No one could tell me how he was,” she says.

“I imagined pulling up to the hospital to be told he’d died, and guilt ate at me.

“Was this my fault? How had I not known I was pregnant?

“Just three days before I’d signed a form at the tattoo parlour saying I wasn’t, and 48 hours ago, I was in the pub knocking back wine and cocktails! Had I done this to him?”

When Louise got to hospital she saw her son for the first time, wrapped in plastic in an incubator – but alive.

She named her baby Lincoln, born on April 14, 2024.

“Though I was medically well, I stayed on the ward while Lincoln was looked after in neonatal intensive care,” she says.

“Doctors estimated from his 2lb 4oz birth weight that he’d been born at 28 weeks, dangerously .”

Over the next few days, Lincoln battled a whole host of medical issues and medics had to drill through both his kneecaps to deliver life-saving medication.

After four days on a ventilator, it was removed and Louise was finally allowed to hold him for the first time.

Lincoln kept on fighting as he was given four blood transfusions and battled fungal .

“Every day that went by, I hoped I was a day closer to having my son home,” says Louise. “But no one could tell us exactly what the future would look like.

“Being deprived of oxygen at birth, Lincoln had suffered brain damage.”

Louise was warned her baby might never sit up, never crawl or walk.

“I didn’t care about that. I just needed him to live,” Louise says.

Louise was warned her baby might never sit up, never crawl or walk Credit: Bauer media

“He’s two now and he’s the happiest little soul.

Lincoln, now two years old, has defied medic’s warnings but it’s unclear what his future holds, in terms of his health Credit: Bauer media

At six months old, Lincoln was finally well enough to come home, Louise still unable to believe what had happened.

“I barely had a moment to reflect on being a new mum,” she says.

“He’s fed through a tube into his stomach, is likely and doctors are still investigating what issues he might be facing.

“But he’s already defied their warnings and is sitting up, crawling and cruising around the furniture.”

Lincoln is clever and smily, his mum says.

“I’m a single parent but all my family adore him, especially Mum,” she adds.

“Even the paramedics still stay in touch. They attended his christening and have been to visit us since, giving Lincoln a little vest saying, ‘paramedic in training’.

“After our shock the night he was born, my whole family and I have now been on first aid courses too, so we’re ready if Lincoln ever needs us.

“I’d urge anyone else to do the same. You never know what’ll happen.

“I now know I experienced a , where a woman doesn’t know she’s expecting.”

A cryptic pregnancy (also known as a stealth or hidden pregnancy) is a pregnancy that goes undetected until very late stages, or even when labour starts.

There are, according to one paper, 325 ‘surprise’ babies in the UK every year.

The causes can include continued periods, a tipped uterus – meaning the ‘bump’ grows towards the spine – and a complete lack of symptoms.

It may also occur when women miss symptoms because they never expected to get pregnant, such as because they have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which can cause irregular periods and weight gain.

Louise says: “I wouldn’t swap Lincoln for the world. And I know I have my own Mum to thank.

“After delivering my surprise baby that day, she saved his life and made mine complete.”