Mental Health

Woman Thought she Had a Hernia, Gives Birth to 10 Pound Baby Instead

By Jennifer Broderick | Update Date: Feb 15, 2013 09:39 PM EST

A Michigan woman wasn't feeling well and thought she had a hernia and went to the hospital to get it checked out. It was no hernia, but instead a healthy 10-pound baby girl.

The hernia pains were actually early labor pains, but 44-year-old Linda Ackley never suspected she was pregnant because she had been told before that she could not bear children.

The doctors performed an immediate c-section on Ackley on Feb. 8 and both baby and surprised Mom are doing well, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

"She is our miracle baby," the stunned new mother said.  Her husband, Mike, got the news over the telephone. The couple, who have been married for 24 years, named the little girl Kimberly Kay

"Some people have nine months to prepare. I had [15] hours," he said. "I wish someone would have taken a picture of my face."

It was hard for Ackley to have known that she was pregnant because back in February 2011, she contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that attacks soft tissue. Her blood-sugar level was far above normal and her immune system was shutting down, Linda Ackley wrote under the heading "Survivors" on the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation website.

She had diabetes, doctors determined, and she spent about a week in a coma and on a ventilator. Some of the muscles in her stomach had to be removed.

 She explained to the Jackson Citizen Patriot that whenever she felt something strange in her stomach, she thought it was expanding and contracting nerves and muscles due to her surgery. She never thought it was a baby moving around.

In addition, she didn't gain any significant weight, was not in any unusual pain besides the "hernia" and has always had irregular periods. So, when Linda went to the doctor because of some bloating in her abdomen last week, she was expecting the doctor to tell her she had a hernia.

Both mom and baby girl are doing fine. 

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