'I looked in the toilet and there was a baby up to his eyes and chin in water'

"My newborn was just looking back up at me from inside the bowl, like, ‘Are you going to get me out of here, Mum?'" Marla vividly recalls in the viral video.

“I looked down in the toilet, and he is in there with water up to his ears and right under his chin,” unexpected mum, Marla, told the New York Post about the most surreal experience of her life.

“(My newborn son) just looking back up at me, like, ‘Are you going to get me out of here, mum?’”

In late February, the 34-year-old was preparing to leave for a four-day camping music festival in Florida, when she thought she was suffering from constipation.

Looking down into the toilet, Marla found her baby boy alive, sitting in the water.

"He was just looking back up at me, like, ‘Are you going to get me out of here, Mum?'" she vividly recalled about the first time she laid eyes on her unexpected newborn that she named Atlas.

“I yell for my dad, and he comes and helps me get the baby out of the toilet because he’s obviously still attached at this point,” she explained.

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Marla, 34, had no idea she was pregnant until she gave birth in the toilet. Source: Instagram

"I asked dad to help me get the baby out of the toilet"

Calling 911, the emergency services tell her father to cut the umbilical cord. Feeling uncomfortable with the task, he used a “chip clip” to secure it until the ambulance arrived.

Living in “the middle of nowhere”, it took the medical team 20 minutes to reach her, leaving Marla no choice but to lie “spread eagle” on the floor with her father cleaning the baby’s face and the mess.

Trying to stay “as calm as possible”, the gobsmacked new mum  described the bathroom as resembling “a murder scene”. 

“It was so much to process at one time,” she exclaimed. 

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Doctors couldn't explain why she was in pain, and passed it off as constipation. Source: Instagram

"My unknowing baby bump just looked like I ate a big burrito"

Marla explained that she has never had a pregnancy scare before. She was on birth control at the time and experienced nothing that would make her even consider that she may be pregnant

“I never showed. My stomach was squishy, my belly button didn’t pop out, no morning sickness,” she explained in the video. 

Not even feeling a kick from the foetus, she also only missed one period during her “cryptic pregnancy”.

Even after taking a pregnancy test three months in, didn't help as the results were negative.

Standing just 152cm tall and 72kg - a true bump never really grew. 

“I just looked like maybe I ate a big burrito,” she said. “If you saw my size and the way that I didn’t show, it’s astonishing how he could be in there and me not know it.”

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Marla described in a three-part TikTok series how she had no idea that she would be giving birth to her son. Source: TikTok

“No one realised that there was a baby in me - not even the doctor”

It wasn’t until she began experiencing “hip pain and stomach issues” that she decided she had to see a doctor and chiropractor.

“No one caught the fact that there was a baby in there."

Despite having no clear indication of why she was experiencing this pain... it continued to get worse. However, she passed it off as constipation. 

“I pretty much assumed that I was dying,” she laughed. 

She then asked her dad to go to the local shops to buy laxatives, resulting in her going  “back and forth, back and forth to the bathroom about five times.”

When she returned to the bathroom for the fifth time, she released the issue... she was in labour.

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Marla's family banded together to prepare everything for the new mum. Source: Instagram

“We have nothing prepared for this newborn baby”

After Marla was rushed to the hospital with her newborn, she was hit with the stark reality of the situation and realised how unprepared she was for the unexpected bundle.

“We don’t have anything for a baby,” she exclaimed. “How do we get ready this fast?”

After the news of her unexpected bouncing bub, her loved ones worked tirelessly to support and prepare the new mum.

“About a day later, all of my friends and my family started banding together to get me everything that I needed for Atlas,” she said.

“My baby is literally taken care of for the next two years. It’s just been this most beautiful outpouring of love.” 

Originally published as 'I looked in the toilet and there was a baby up to his eyes and chin in water'