A decade after she was told she'd never give birth, she got a Christmas surprise

A woman who was told she could never give birth received a surprise gift on Christmas — a baby boy — following a cryptic pregnancy. 

"A little bit of shock"

Melanie Smith and her husband, Donovan O’Dell, welcomed their first child, Vincent Antonio O'Dell, on Christmas Day, after a few hours of labor, Good Morning America (GMA) reported. The baby’s arrival was completely unexpected as Smith, 28, was told nearly 10 years ago that she would likely never bear children due to uterine irregularities.

"[I'm] still [in] a little bit of a shock, but I'm doing great, and my son's just awesome," Smith said.

In the early morning hours of Christmas Day, Smith suffered from stomach pains, but initially believed she was just experiencing constipation. She and her husband decided to go to a local hospital in Waukegan, Illinois, when the pain persisted.

Woman experiences ‘Christmas miracle' after surprise birth

"[The pain] kept kind of growing in intensity and frequency," Smith recalled. "By, like, 3:30 [a.m.,] I was like, 'OK, it's time to go to the hospital. Something's very wrong.'”

Staff at the hospital told Smith she was pregnant and in labor, much to her and her husband’s surprise.

 “And then [we] got to the hospital, and they were just like, 'We're pretty sure you're pregnant,’” Smith said.

After about 2 hours of labor at the hospital, Smith delivered baby Vincent, who weighed a healthy 8 pounds, 1 ounces, at birth. Mom and baby were transferred to another hospital for further care, and were later released in good health.

A cryptic pregnancy

Doctors told Smith that she had experienced a cryptic pregnancy. Baby Vincent had been “hiding” behind her spine, and although Smith had felt some back pain during the pregnancy, she had not experienced the other symptoms of pregnancy. She assumed her back pains were just flare-ups from a back surgery she had in 2020.

Despite going without prenatal care during the pregnancy, Baby Vincent passed all his health tests.

Smith's experience of a cryptic pregnancy has happened to numerous women. UK citizen Helen Green experienced a cryptic pregnancy. When she, her husband, and her daughter were vacationing in Canada, Green, 45, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in a Toronto hotel room after experiencing "really bad stomach pains." She had no idea that she was pregnant.

In another story of cryptic pregnancy, 41-year-old Suze Lopez of Bakersfield, California, was expecting to have surgery to remove a 22-pound ovarian tumor. A pre-surgery pregnancy test revealed she was pregnant — and it had been masked by the sheer size of the tumor. She delivered an eight-pound baby boy, who had actually been growing outside her uterus (an abdominal ectopic pregnancy). "I could not believe that after 17 years of praying and trying for a second child, that I was actually pregnant,” said Lopez.

The Bottom Line:

Though baby Vincent's life was completely unexpected, his parents are now building their life around his. The family has already relocated to Arizona from Illinois in order to be close to family as they raise their son.

Motherhood has been an unexpected blessing for Smith, who said she never really wanted or expected children. Baby Vincent has changed her mind.

"I had never really thought that I wanted kids and never anticipated that being part of my life plan, especially with the expectation that I couldn't have them to begin with," Smith said. "And now that he's here … I couldn't imagine life without him anymore. And he's only been here a couple weeks."

Go Deeper:

Read more below to learn more about cryptic pregnancies, the signs, and just how common they are:

• Cleveland Clinic: Cryptic pregnancy

• WebMD: What is cryptic pregnancy?

• VeryWell Health: Cryptic Pregnancy: Signs You're Pregnant But Don't Know It