Marathon runner confuses labour pains with muscle-pull

Marathon runner confuses labour pains with muscle-pull
Updated on

Summary Trish Staine said she had no idea she was pregnant before Monday's surprise birth.

 

DULUTH (Web Desk) - An aspiring half-marathon runner in Minnesota attributed her unbearable back pain to a two-hour training session. A day later, she was cradling a newborn.

 

Trish Staine, 33, said she had no idea she was pregnant before Monday s surprise birth. The Duluth mother of three said she hadn t gained weight or felt fetal movement in the months before. And besides, her husband had had a vasectomy.

 

"I said  no, no, that s impossible, " Staine said Wednesday from her Duluth hospital room. "I definitely thought I was done having kids," she joked. Staine and her husband, John, have a daughter, 7, and a son, 11. She s also stepmother to John Staine s three boys, ages 17, 19 and 20.

 

Staine said she ran for about two hours Sunday in preparation for the Garry Bjorklund half-marathon on June 22.
"I had a sore back Sunday evening. I had taken a hot shower and was dealing with it," Staine said. "Monday morning, I woke up and had more back pain, and as the day went on it got worse. I thought I should go to the ER. I thought I ruptured a disc or pulled a muscle."

 

But she soldiered on, watching her husband play basketball at noon and going to her daughter s short play. When Staine got home, she thought a bath might help her pain.

 

As she talked to her husband on the phone, Staine said her pain was becoming unbearable. Her husband called an ambulance. "I felt like I was dying. I didn t know what was going on," she said.

 

During the emergency room examination, Staine and her husband were stunned to learn medical staff had detected a fetal heartbeat. She was whisked to the delivery room and in what she said seemed like 5 minutes later, her daughter was born at 3:25 p.m. Monday. She weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and was 18.9 inches long. Staine said her husband has a good sense of humor.

 

"He s still in shock. Everybody is teasing him," she said. Born about five weeks early, the Staines expect that in about a week they will be able to take baby Mira -- short for Miracle -- home.

Browse Topics