A Canadian mother has shared the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the birth of her third child, revealing that she unknowingly gave birth while asleep and only realised her baby had been delivered after nurses found him beneath the hospital blankets.
Carolina Moreno, 27, described the experience as “traumatising” in a TikTok video that has since gone viral.
Moreno, who lives in Canada with her husband, Jorge Carrera, said she was admitted for an induced labour after testing positive for Group B Streptococcus (GBS), a bacterial infection that required her to receive antibiotics before her water could be broken.
She explained that, unlike her previous pregnancies, she was already three centimetres dilated with a thinned cervix when she arrived at the hospital, prompting medical staff to begin treatment immediately.
A few hours later, doctors broke her water and administered Pitocin, a medication used to stimulate labour. As contractions intensified, Moreno requested an epidural, but said it took longer than expected to take effect despite receiving additional doses.
Once the medication provided relief, she drifted off to sleep while her husband, sister and cousin remained in the delivery room.
During that time, nurses repeatedly entered the room after the fetal heart monitor lost track of the baby’s heartbeat. Initially, the family believed the monitor had simply shifted, as the baby had been active throughout labour.
However, concern grew when nurses struggled to locate the heartbeat.
Moreno said she woke up to the mounting anxiety and followed a nurse’s instruction to lie on her back so they could continue the search.
Moments later, she felt something on the bed and feared something had gone terribly wrong.
“I never thought it was going to be my baby,” she recalled.
When the nurse lifted the blankets, Moreno’s newborn son was found lying face down beneath them.
“He was face down. He wasn’t crying, and I just panicked,” she said, explaining that she feared he had not survived after apparently spending several minutes under the blankets unnoticed.
The nurse immediately picked up the baby and stimulated him until he began to cry.
Moreno said the shocking discovery left her screaming, while her husband initially believed he had simply missed the birth, only to realise that everyone in the room had been unaware the baby had already been delivered.
“It was a huge shock to find him under the blankets,” Moreno later told People magazine.
She explained that the baby had effectively delivered himself without anyone realising, which was why nurses could no longer detect his heartbeat inside the womb.
“The nurse didn’t deliver him; he delivered himself,” she said.
Now three months old, Moreno said her son is healthy and thriving, describing him as an exceptionally calm baby.
“We feel very lucky. He’s absolutely amazing and was born in perfect health,” she said.
Although she still considers the experience frightening, Moreno said understanding her son’s calm personality has helped her make sense of the unusual birth.
“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. He’s just the most calm baby.”