A young mother has claimed that she has slept her way through childbirth after a machine misread her contractions causing her to sleep during labour.

The Sun reported that Alice Payne, 23, from Derbyshire in the UK, closed her eyes while lying in her hospital bed, and woke up an hour later to find that she had almost completely given birth.

Mrs Payne, who says she was “completely out of it” as she gave birth, delivered her baby boy, Philip, at Royal Derby Hospital on December 18. She said that doctors and midwives were “amazed” to see her pushing out her son “while napping”, although the hospital has not commented on the claim.

She explained that there was something wrong with the contraction monitor. “Because the contraction monitor wasn’t reading me properly, doctors didn’t realise that I was as far along as I actually was. So I was given some drugs to let me nap for a couple of hours, but thirty minutes later, they realised I was ready to push,” she said.

Mrs Payne fell pregnant in April and said that she was “intrigued” by childbirth, but at 38-weeks pregnant, she said that doctors said her son stopped growing in the womb, which prompted them to medically induce her on December 16.

Although there was nothing wrong with her baby, doctors decided that it was best for her to give birth sooner, before things will get worse. However, after 24 hours, nothing happened, and so midwives injected hormones to bring on the labour, with a machine hooked up to track how strong her contractions were.

After asking for some pain relief and taking a nap, Mrs Payne’s body was ready to give birth, but the machine didn’t alert doctors in time. When the doctors realised what was happening, they were worried that she was too relaxed to push and would need an emergency C-section.

However, before it came to that, her husband, Jonathan Payne was with her, telling her when to push. She reportedly responded, and started to push in her sleep.

With just 10 minutes of the birth left, Mrs Payne woke up, and finished the job before going back to sleep for two more hours.

“I remember a nurse trying to put Philip in my arms, but I was going to sleep again, only to wake up two hours later to properly meet my son.

“Though I’m pleased I missed the pain of labour, I do wish I had been more present for my first baby’s birth. Now when he’s older and asks me, I’ll have to tell him I nodded off,” she said.

Source: News.com.au