British Mum Claims She Slept Through Labour
Her body was ready to push but Alice was still asleep.
By Livia Gamble
January 23 2017
Forget the pain of labour, a British mum claims she gave birth in her sleep and didn't feel a thing.
Alice Payne, 23, said she dozed off during labour after a machine misread her contractions. An hour later she woke up to find she had nearly given birth.
“Because the contraction monitor wasn’t reading me properly, doctors didn’t realise that I was as far along as I actually was.
“So I was given some drugs to let me nap for a couple of hours, but thirty minutes later they realised I was ready to push,” Payne told The Sun.
Payne, from Derbyshire in the UK, gave birth to her son, Philip, at the Royal Derby Hospital on December 18, admitting she was “completely out of it”.
At 38-weeks pregnant, Payne’s son had stopped growing inside her womb and doctors decided to medically induce her.
The mum was given hormones to bring on the labour, while a machine monitored how strong her contractions were. After being given some pain relief she took a nap. Soon after, her body was ready to push but Payne was still asleep.
Despite her doctor's concern that she wouldn’t be able to push, Payne’s husband, Jonathan Payne, reportedly whispered in her ear, telling her when to push.
Payne woke up with ten minutes to go, delivered her son and went back to sleep for another two hours.
“I remember a nurse trying to put Philip in my arms, but I was going to sleep again, only to wake up two hours later to properly meet my son," she said.
“Though I’m pleased I missed the pain of labour, I do wish I had been more present for my first baby‘s birth. Now when he’s older and asks me, I’ll have to tell him I nodded off.”
