A teen mum has shared her birth story – and her shock at not knowing she was pregnant until her baby's head emerged.
Posting on the website Stuff, Emma Croftswilson wrote that the day her daughter was born was "probably the most chaotic yet most exciting day of my life."
Home alone on the afternoon of February 11, 2016, and not knowing the cause of the pain she was in, she was "absolutely terrified" of what lay ahead as she unwittingly experienced a speedy labour.
Then, to her utter shock, her baby arrived.
"After she was born my first reaction was to wrap her up in a towel and make sure she was safe and secure. I checked her airway to make sure she was breathing, then cut her cord with a pair of kitchen scissors," wrote Emma, from Kaiapoi, New Zealand.
After cleaning herself – and her baby – up, she texted her mum, who was at work at the time. Still in a state of disbelief, she texted, "Mum please don't be mad or angry at me, but I've just had a baby and I don't know what to do so please help me."
"She called me straight away asking if I was just being crazy, or if I did actually have a baby. I said yes, I actually did, to which she replied, "Where is the baby then Emma? I can't hear it crying!'
"My reply was, 'It's on the kitchen table, Mum'."
Her mum rushed home to find her daughter and brand new granddaughter on the lounge. She promptly dropped to her knees and "cried her eyes out because she didn't know what to do herself".
As if that wasn't enough, Emma's dad then arrived home after picking up Emma's sister from school.
"The first thing he said was, 'look, there's a baby. Whose baby is that?'"
"After the chaos died down, the ambulance came and took me to the hospital to make sure everything was okay," Emma wrote.
Emma named her baby Hannah-Marie Teira – and she adds, in spite of not being aware of the pregnancy, "What do you know, she was perfectly healthy and weighing 6.5 pound (2.9kg)".
"To this day she is still as happy and healthy as ever."
Emma shared her birth story as part of a Stuff community writing project. You can share yours too – find out more here.