Canadian Mother's Unconscious Delivery: Nurses Find Newborn Under Blankets

A mother has publicly shared her extraordinary and, in her words, "traumatizing" birthing experience, where she delivered her baby while completely asleep. Carolina Moreno, a 27-year-old Canada-based mother of three, recently went viral on TikTok after recounting the unusual circumstances surrounding the birth of her youngest child, now three months old.

Moreno's video explained that her induction began with a positive test for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) bacteria, necessitating antibiotics before her water could be broken. Unlike her previous two pregnancies, which involved longer labour periods, Moreno was already 3 cm dilated with a thinned cervix, prompting immediate antibiotic administration.

Hours later, nurses proceeded to break Moreno's water and began administering Pitocin to stimulate contractions. Moreno recalled feeling "really uncomfortable" due to her baby's position, leading her to request an epidural. Despite an hour passing, the epidural's effects were not felt. Moreno, who also has children aged four and one with her husband Jorge Carrera, pressed the additional dose button three times before finally achieving comfort. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep, with her husband, sister, and cousin present in the delivery room.

While Moreno slept, nurses periodically entered the room to monitor the baby's heartbeat. "The alarm went off on the monitor, which happens when the heartbeat isn’t found, so my nurse came in to find it again," she told PEOPLE. She noted that such alarms were not uncommon, as her baby was very active and prone to movement, sometimes dislodging the monitor. "Sometimes I’d adjust myself, and I’d move the monitor by accident, so we weren’t overly worried when she initially came in, and I was still pretty asleep," Moreno explained. However, as minutes passed and the nurse struggled to locate the heartbeat, panic began to set in, fully waking Moreno.

Upon waking, Moreno's alarm grew as the nurse continued her search. She inquired if lying on her back would help, to which the nurse agreed, saying, "Just lie on your back, we’ll find him." Moreno described the moment: "When I turn on my back, her hands are still on my stomach, and that’s when she points out that my stomach feels really weird." A terrifying thought immediately crossed her mind: "In that moment, I don’t know why I just thought, my baby’s d£ad."

Attempting to adjust her legs, Moreno felt something on the bed. "I swear I thought it was gonna be like my placenta or my uterus had popped out or...I never thought it was going to be my baby," she recounted. Then, the nurse lifted the blankets. "And [the nurse] lifts up the blanket, and my son is face down under all of my blankets." The sight was horrifying: "He’s face down. He’s not crying. And I just panic. I freak out." Moreno's fear escalated, realizing the baby had been under blankets, face down, and silent for several minutes – a dangerous scenario for a newborn. "I didn’t think he was alive."

The nurse quickly scooped up the baby and began rubbing him. "I am screaming. I screamed at my husband," Moreno recalled, noting her husband's initial thought that he had missed the birth, only to realize they all had. Even after the nurse successfully got her son to cry, Moreno found it difficult to "really process that he was okay," leaving her profoundly "traumatized."

Reflecting on the incident, Moreno told PEOPLE, "It was a huge shock to find him [under the blankets]...turns out he was sleeping, and he’s just a very chill baby, still to this day you just lay him down, and he falls asleep, he’s just not a crier." She added, "The nurse didn’t deliver him; he delivered himself." The most terrifying aspect was the unknown. "We had no idea he was even out, which is actually what made it so scary at first, since they couldn’t find his heartbeat, since he wasn’t in me anymore. We just thought something horrible had happened."

Now, with her son thriving at three months old, Moreno feels "very lucky," describing him as "absolutely amazing and was born in perfect health." She added, "He’s also our easiest baby and the adjustment has been seamless." The initial fear of finding him unresponsive under the blankets now makes sense given his calm temperament. "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."