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First-time mother, 23-year-old Alice Payne was anxious about the prospect of childbirth, much like any other mother-to-be. It’s known to be painful and nerve-wracking, but for Payne, it ended up being just another nap, literally.
Payne’s son, Phillip, was born on December 18 during her 38th week of pregnancy, but she barely remembers the day at all because she slept through the entire thing.
Doctors discovered that Payne’s son had stopped growing in the womb, so they wanted to medically induce labor to have him come out early. 24 hours passed, but labor was still not happening, so doctors decided to inject her with a hormone that would start contractions and essentially jumpstart her body to go into labor.
The contraction machine, however, didn’t seem to show that Payne was actually undergoing enough contractions to go through birth.
Doctors decided to give Payne pain medication so she didn’t have to suffer through contractions for so long – but that’s when they realized, Payne was actually fully dilated and ready to give birth.
There was talk for a moment of performing an emergency C-section in case Payne’s body didn’t respond to labor.
But this wasn’t the case.
Somehow, even in her state of unconsciousness, Payne listened to her husband telling her to “push,” and the medical team was able to deliver Phillip without any further complications.
The mother woke for the last 10-15 minutes of labor, but otherwise remembers very little of the entire event because of all the medication they’d given her.
Now, doctors report that Payne and her son are both healthy and recovering well. Payne’s only regret is she wishes that she “had been more present for [her] first baby’s birth.”
