Teenager Gives Birth At Ilu Iboro Without Being Aware Of Pregnancy (photos)

by Tajudeen Adebanjo,

19-year old woman Mutiat Abiona has given birth to a baby girl without knowing that she was pregnant all through nine-month pregnancy period.
She delivered the baby at Ilu Iboro, on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway when she went to visit a relative. The baby weighs 4.0kg.

According to an eyewitness, Mutiat at the relative’s place complained of stomach pain and before the people knew what was happening, signs of a baby’s impending arrival were seen.

“They quickly partitioned a side of the house with clothes and delivered the woman of the baby.

She gave birth to the baby beside the wall there. In fact, they used blade to cut the umbilical cord,” he said.

Neighbours, who were surprised by the development called for a nearby doctor’s assistance.

Before the doctors’ arrival, she was attended to by some midwives.

“On arrival, two doctors just cleaned up the baby. They were from the General Hospital. I was with her when she had the baby. They went to greet someone there when she started having contractions. She had a baby boy and he weighed 4.0kg.

It was the women who live in the house that attended to her when the contractions started,” he said.

She denied having knowledge of the pregnancy but admitted having a boyfriend who she gave his name as Lekan, a 20-year-old brick layer.

According to her, she usually met Lekan at Akeola Street on the Expressway whenever she visited her Aunt on weekends.

“You can imagine, neither she nor her Lekan boyfriend knew about the pregnancy. This is surprising,” he said.
Mutiat’s mother, who was at the scene, corroborated her daughter’s claim, saying they had gone to do some tests in the hospital and they were told that there was nothing in her womb.

“From my investigations, she told me that she always met the guy every weekend when she went to her aunt’s place. She lives with me and throughout these last nine months, there was no sign of the pregnancy. She still wrote the last November/December West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

She did not know that she was pregnant,” she said.

However, a medical doctor Monsurah Kadri described the incident as nothing new.
Dr Kadri said “it is not a new occurrence.”

“We do see it. It is possible that her stomach would not bulge. She would notice some bodily changes but the fact that she does not have people who are really observant would not make her think along that line.

“When some people despite being pregnant, still see some blood, they may think they are on their period but it is not.

“She also did not go for ante-natal. So, there would be no cause to screen her. There was a case we had when I was still in the university.

The patient denied all the questions posed to her. It was when her stomach was opened up that we saw uterus bulging. Nobody thought of pregnancy. Her parents were worried about her because nobody knew what was wrong. Unfortunately, they didn’t do pregnancy test.

“Since she didn’t have older people experience enough to notice those subtle changes, she could not have known. Also, being a teenager, it is common among them. Even if she notices that she is getting fatter, she may be doing many things to hide it. It is not strange,” the doctor explained.