Nun Gives Birth In Italy, Had No Idea She Was Pregnant

A nun gave birth in Italy, arriving at the hospital with stomach cramps and leaving with a newborn boy.

The Salvadorean nun was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday suffering from abdominal pain, and ended up giving birth to a healthy nine pound baby boy.

The woman says she had no idea before arriving at the hospital that she was carrying a child.

“I did not know I was pregnant. I only felt a stomach pain,” the 31-year-old nun was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA.

The nun who gave birth belongs to a covenant near Rieti known as “Little Disciples of Jesus.” The nuns manage a senior citizen home there.

The other nuns in the convent were quoted as being “very surprised” at the nun giving birth.

Hospital officials did not give information on how the nun became pregnant, but local religious leaders didn’t doubt her story that she was unaware of the baby.

“I guess she’s telling the truth when she says she arrived at the hospital unaware of the pregnancy,” said local pastor Don Fabrizio Borrello.

After the unexpected birth, people at the hospital began collecting clothes and donations for the new mother, who said she plans to raise the baby.

The story of the pregnant nun drew so much attention to the city of Rieti that mayor Simone Petrangeli stepped forward to appeal for privacy.

The unnamed woman is not the first nun to give birth in recent months. In October an American woman studying to be a nun secretly gave birth, but ended up smothering the child to death. The nun in training told police she didn’t want anyone to know that she had sex.

The nun who gave birth this week ended up naming her son Francis, the name of the current pope.