Pregnant woman jolts awake when nurse can’t find baby’s heartbeat before delivery. Then they lift up the blankets: ‘He delivered himself’

A Canadian mother says she woke up in a panic during labor after a nurse could not find her baby’s heartbeat on the monitor, only to discover that her son had already been born while she was asleep. Carolina Moreno, 27, shared the experience on TikTok, where the video went viral. She is also a mother to a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old with her husband, Jorge Carrera, according to her TikTok account.

Moreno told People that she had tested positive for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) bacteria when she went in for her induction, which meant she needed antibiotics before her water could be broken. She said she was already 3 cm dilated and her cervix was thin, so the medical staff started her on antibiotics right away. A few hours later, nurses broke her water and began administering Pitocin, a drug used to stimulate labor.

Moreno said she felt “really uncomfortable” during this time and that her baby was not in a good position, so she asked for an epidural. After about an hour, she shared, she still had not felt it take effect and hit the button for an extra dose three more times before finally feeling comfortable enough to fall asleep. Her husband, sister, and cousin were all said to be in the room at the time.

A nurse discovered the newborn under the blankets after the monitor alarm went off

According to Moreno, nurses had been coming in periodically to check on the baby’s heartbeat while she slept. “The alarm went off on the monitor, which happens when the heartbeat isn’t found, so my nurse came in to find it again,” she said. She said this had happened several times before because her baby was very active and liked to move, so the family was not immediately alarmed.

“Sometimes I’d adjust myself, and I’d move the monitor by accident, so we weren’t overly worried when she initially came in, and I was still pretty asleep,” Moreno recalled. “But as the minutes passed, I started to get worried because obviously she’s not finding him…that’s when I really woke up.”

Once fully awake and watching the nurse continue to search, Moreno said panic set in. She recalled asking if she should lie on her back, and the nurse agreed. “When I turn on my back, her hands are still on my stomach, and that’s when she points out that my stomach feels really weird,” Moreno said in her TikTok video. In another case, a Florida woman gave birth unexpectedly and thought her baby was dead. 

At that moment, Moreno said she feared the worst. “I don’t know why I just thought, my baby’s dead,” she said. When Moreno went to adjust her legs, she said she felt something on the bed. “I swear I thought it was gonna be like my placenta or my uterus had popped out or…I never thought it was going to be my baby,” she recalled. “And [the nurse] lifts up the blanket, and my son is face down under all of my blankets.”

“He’s face down. He’s not crying. And I just panic. I freak out,” Moreno continued. “Obviously, you see a baby, and he’s not crying, and he’s probably been there for several minutes under blankets, under you. That’s everything a newborn shouldn’t be. So I was really scared. I didn’t think he was alive.” The nurse quickly picked the baby up and began rubbing him. “I am screaming. I screamed at my husband,” Moreno said. “He thought he missed the birth. He just didn’t realize we all missed the birth.”

Moreno added that even after her son started crying, she could not “really process that he was okay,” and that the experience left her feeling “really traumatized.” Looking back, she said it was “a huge shock” to find him under the blankets. “The nurse didn’t deliver him; he delivered himself,” she said. 

“We had no idea he was even out, which is actually what made it so scary at first, since they couldn’t find his heartbeat, since he wasn’t in me anymore. We just thought something horrible had happened.” A similar situation involved a pregnant Alabama woman warned about a serious condition who chose marriage first.

Now 3 months old, Moreno said her son was “born in perfect health” and has turned out to be her calmest child. “It was incredibly scary finding him on his stomach under the blankets, not crying, but now that we know his personality, it really makes sense,” she said. “He’s just the most calm baby.”