Baby pops out, falls into pit latrine as woman unaware of her pregnancy answered call of nature

A 36-year-old woman from Machakos County, Kenya on Friday evening gave birth while answering a short call of nature at the Mwala Level 4 Hospital.

The woman, who lives with partial paralysis following a stroke, had been assisted by her teenage son to access the toilet, where she gave birth to a baby boy, and the newborn fell into the pit latrine.

After assisting her mother out of the toilet, the woman’s son heard a baby crying in the pit latrine, prompting him to alert nurses at the facility.

“We managed to get people to demolish the pit latrine and rescued the baby, who was alive. Preliminary examination indicates the new mother had carried the pregnancy to term,” Mwala Level 4 Hospital medical superintendent Dr. Stephen Kitheka told K24 Digital.


Dr. Kitheka says the woman, who is paralysed on the left side of her body, stated that she wasn’t aware of her pregnancy, or did not experience any labor pains prior to giving birth.

The doctor says the patient had come for physiotherapy sessions among other treatments for different ailments.

“After rescuing the baby, we admitted the mother-and-child to a ward, where they were closely monitored. The infant was accorded emergency care, and is now in stable condition. It is actually breast-feeding,” said Dr. Kitheka.


Medical News Today says a situation where a woman carries a pregnancy to term without knowing that she was expectant is known as cryptic pregnancy.

Sometimes the woman will realise she is pregnant when she is in the third trimester or only when she goes into labor.