North News
Struggling to an out-of-hours doctors' surgery with excruciating backache, mum-of-one Kayleigh Renwick thought she would be diagnosed with a kidney infection.
Instead, she was told she was pregnant – and just six hours later gave birth to her second daughter!
Kayleigh, a 24-year-old nursery nurse, from Stanley, County Durham, had no idea she was expecting for a second time - and even more amazingly, with a baby thought to be FIVE WEEKS overdue!
Little Lucy was born weighing in at 7lb, 7oz, but showing the signs of her lateness, with dry, cracked skin due to Kayleigh's placenta having stopped work.
Shocked Kayleigh says she had continued to menstruate throughout the pregnancy and had even lost weight, shrinking from a size 16 to a 12-14.
"You read about women not realising they were pregnant and think 'how did you not know?'. I had no pram, no cot, nothing," she told her local paper. "I'd given it all away after Grace as I was adamant we weren't going to have another baby."
Kayleigh's backache started as she and partner Daniel Madge took their two-year-old daughter Grace to the park last May. After going to see the doctor she was asked 'how far into your pregnancy are you?' when staff took a routine urine sample.
Despite insisting she wasn't pregnant, Kayleigh was sent to the University Hospital of North Durham for a scan.
"If they'd said I was four months pregnant I could have got my head around that but they said 'it's good news, there's a baby there and you're 8cm dilated,;" said Kayleigh.
"I couldn't believe it. My body went into shock and I started throwing up. I had periods throughout the pregnancy and in February was sick a couple of times so did a pregnancy test and it came back negative. There were just no further symptoms.
"They didn't know what Lucy had been surviving on and thought she was up to five weeks overdue. She was back-to-back and they think tucked behind my pelvis which is why I was getting the backache."
Since her birth, Lucy has been diagnosed with severe Brachycephaly and Plagiocephaly – or Flat Head Syndrome (FHS). Kayleigh is now trying to raise £2,000 for a cranial helmet to re-shape Lucy's head.
Treatment for the condition is not available on the NHS, and the family have to fund it themselves, including travelling to Leeds every week at a cost of £116 a time for six weeks, and then every two weeks so Lucy's progress can be monitored.
"We were referred to a consultant who told us Lucy had Plagiocephaly, but because the condition is cosmetic there was little the NHS can do," Kayleigh said.
"I went to the hospital hoping they'd help. If the NHS can fund boob jobs and gastric bands, why can't they fund a child in need?
"You could see straight away her head was misshapen and we didn't want Lucy to have to grow up with this. Children can be so cruel and I didn't want that for my little girl."
What an amazing story - and let's hope the family get the help they need for Lucy.
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