Mom Gives Birth Hours After Learning Of Rare Cryptic Pregnancy

This mom had no idea she was pregnant until doctors told her she was already in labor

Ryan Brennan | December 21, 2025

Screengrab from @ladyvols_fan31's Instagram.

Imagine walking into the hospital with a stomach ache, but leaving several hours later with a baby.

That was the case for Keionna Dickerson, a 31-year-old mom of four from Tennessee, who had no idea she was pregnant with her fourth child until doctors told her she was 35 weeks along — and already in labor.

“Had a period for nine months but no pregnancy signs,” she said of her cryptic pregnancy in a Nov. 27 TikTok post.

“I was literally the same size. Went to the hospital because of bad cramps and whole time I was in labor,” she continued — adding that she had an emergency C-section hours after learning of the pregnancy.

In an interview with TODAY.com, Dickerson explained the shock that came with the discovery.

“I kept thinking, 'how could there be a whole baby in me and I didn’t know?'” she told the outlet. “I’d been working, sleeping, getting my period. Everything felt normal.”

Dickerson initially went to the ER for what she suspected was a stomach bug.

Despite not having any of the normal pregnancy signs — including a baby bump — it didn’t take long for doctors to realize that she had a baby growing inside of her.

“I was huge with all my pregnancies — every single one of them,” she told TODAY.com of her first three pregnancies.

Nonetheless, she gave birth to baby No. 4 in July and trusted her sister and cousin with the name.

The baby boy’s name is Champion — a meaningful name that comes with an incredible birth story.

“I was out here living life and he was just in there fighting like a champion,” Dickerson said of her now-five-month-old sons name. “Champion was perfect the name. It felt like who he already was.”

Dickerson is also a mom to her three older kids — Cree, 13, Ja’Saiah, 7, and Jace, 5.

What is a cryptic pregnancy and how rare is it?

this mom had no idea she was pregnant until doctors told her she was already in labor cryptic pregnancy — Daniel Reche / Pexels

Most women find out they are pregnant between four to seven weeks after their last menstrual period.

But that’s not the case with a cryptic pregnancy.

Also known as a stealth pregnancy, a cryptic pregnancy is when a woman is pregnant without knowing it — and often don’t find out until late in the pregnancy or, in Dickerson’s case, ready to give birth.

This type of unexpected pregnancy isn’t common.

In fact, roughly 1 in 475 pregnancies go unnoticed until 20 weeks gestation and 1 in 2,500 pregnancies go unnoticed until delivery, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

That means what happened to Dickerson earlier this year only happens 0.04% of the time.

Women who are at an increased risk of a surprise pregnancy include those who recently gave birth, those with polycystic ovary syndrome, those who use birth control and those who are in perimenopause.

Common cryptic pregnancy symptoms include missed periods, spotting, weight gain, fetal movement, false negative tests and a swollen belly. In Dickerson’s case, it was “bad cramps.”

“It’s associated with less than optimal outcomes for both the mom and the baby,” one doctor told TODAY.com about a separate case that went viral in 2022.

Luckily for Dickerson, both the mother and baby were are healthy.

“He fits right in,” Dickerson told TODAY.com of her “chill little guy” who only cries when he’s hungry or teething. “Everybody loves him.”