Melissa Surgecoff, 38, had no idea she was expecting when she began to have cramping on March 8th. She had missed her period for 5 months but wrote it off as irregular.
“It wasn’t super alarming or a red flag, but I told myself this wasn’t normal,” Surgecoff told USA TODAY.
Melissa said her cramps grew increasingly worse as the day progressed to the point where she called her mother to see if she could take her to the doctor. They grew so intense she was forced into the fetal position to alleviate the pain.
“I went to the bathroom to get ready to go to the hospital, and I saw blood,” Surgecoff said. “I thought it was a good thing because it really did mean I was getting my period.”
As the pain in her abdomen got worse she began to sit on the toilet for relief.
“I’m sitting on the toilet screaming, and I’m telling myself this is way beyond a menstrual cycle,” Surgecoff said. “This has to be a kidney stone.”
With her fiance Donald Campbell looking on she said she felt something release from her body.
“At this point, I still didn’t know it was a baby, so when I looked in the toilet I thought it was an organ,” she said.
When Donald came to check out what Melissa thought she passed he realized it was a baby.
“I started to pick it up very slowly and realized it wasn’t breathing at all,” Campbell said.
Remembering an episode of “Rescue 911” he cleaned out the nostrils and eyes of the newborn and began to rub the baby with his sweatshirt. Ten-fifteen seconds later, the baby began to breathe.
EMTs from Salem Hospital arrived and transferred mom and baby to the hospital.
“Looking back at it now there were clear-cut signs I was pregnant,” Surgecoff said. “I had swollen feet, weight gain, heartburn, and if I put all the signs together I would have known.”
“This is our first and probably last child,” Campbell said.
