A SCHOOLGIRL who was rushed to hospital after falling in the playground was “terrified” when doctors revealed she was heavily pregnant.
Naomi Smith, who was 15 at the time, slipped on ice at James Gillespie’s High School, Edinburgh, in January last year, and feared she had injured her spine after losing the feeling in her legs.
But – to her shock and amazement – doctors at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh told her she was almost seven months pregnant, after the image of a baby appeared on her X-ray.
Miss Smith insists there were never any signs of pregnancy before that day and said she “genuinely had no idea at all”.
She had just two months to prepare for the arrival of her healthy baby girl, Nina, now one, but with the support of her parents she is now back at school and is even considering a career in midwifery.
Miss Smith, now 16, said: “It was last year when we had the really terrible weather and I was taken to accident and emergency after a bad fall.
“When you go in to get an X-ray you have to sing a form declaring you are not pregnant, which, of course, I did.
“Then a really lovely doctor came and told me I was pregnant.
“I was shocked and terrified at the same time, because I genuinely had no idea at all.
“Then I had to tell my parents – they wheeled me through and I think they could see in my face there was something wrong.
“Then they came in to check the baby’s heartbeat and my dad had to leave my bedside while they put a curtain round.
“There was nothing at first but then eventually you could hear the heartbeat – so my dad heard it but couldn’t see me or the screen.
“I think it was quite an emotional moment for him.
“It was an amazing experience.”
Miss Smith’s parents soon adapted to the news and the teenager says she could not cope without their support.
The hospital’s midwifery team made such an impression on her that she now wants to pursue a career in it.
She said: “I now want to be a midwife, and can hopefully go and study that once I’ve finished here [school].
“They get a hard time but my experience has been a really positive one.
“I realised there are so many different aspects to the job.”
Miss Smith still lives at her family home, but changed schools and now attends the young mothers’ unit at the Wester Hailes Education Centre, to help her keep up with her studies.
She said: “It was a change going there, but it has been great to be around people in the same situation as me, people who know what you’re going through.
“The whole place gives great support, including the teachers and the health visitors.”
