Hattie, 21, had no bump and didn’t feel a thing while pregnant
Neil Shaw Assistant Editor
12:03, 10 Feb 2026Updated 12:39, 10 Feb 2026
Hattie with her baby girl(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
An ‘adrenaline junkie’ student had no idea she was pregnant until giving birth on her adventure travel gap year – even going on a 100mph slingshot ride heavily pregnant. Hattie Sheppard had flown out to Australia with her boyfriend Bailey Cheadle, 22, in July last year for a gap year of travelling in between her second and third year of university in York.
Over the last six months, the 21-year-old says the pair had enjoyed partying, drinking, jumping off boats into the sea and even went on a 100mph slingshot theme park ride in October. But when Hattie began to feel a small pain in her stomach on January 13th this year, she believed she’d picked up a stomach bug and took two paracetamol tablets.
When the pain became localised to the right side of her stomach the size six student then suspected it was appendicitis. However, following an ultrasound at the Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland, Australia, Hattie was shocked to be told she was in labour and having a baby.
She then had her waters broken and gave birth to Isla-Grace Cheadle at 12:47pm on January 14th, weighing 6lbs 7oz. Since giving birth, Hattie has found out her placenta was pushed up to the front of her stomach which stopped her feeling any of the baby’s movement.
Furthermore, Isla-Grace was growing at the back near her spine, which is why the shocked mum-to-be didn’t have a bump. The student is now sharing her cryptic pregnancy story and says giving birth unexpectedly was the best thing to happen to her.
Hattie, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, said: “There’s a slingshot ride in surfer’s paradise and it shoots you up into the air at 100mph and takes you all over. It shoots you up to the top of the skyscrapers and I did that not knowing I was pregnant.
Hattie on the slingshot(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
“Exactly two weeks before she was born it was New Year’s Eve and me and my boyfriend were on the beach watching fireworks and we’d been out before that. I’m a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. Me and Bailey rented a boat out over here in Australia for my 21st birthday in September.
“We were jumping off the boat into the water, drinking and it was a standard 21st birthday. I started with little pains in my stomach but nothing severe. I didn’t feel like eating so I thought it was a stomach bug.
“Later on that night the pain moved to the right side of my stomach and it was radiating into the bottom of my back. It was absolute agony but I took two paracetamol and tried to go to sleep.
“It was a constant pain but when the pain was getting worse, I thought it was because of how I was moving but these were actually contractions, I just had no clue. I remember turning and looking at the doctor’s face when he was doing the ultrasound and he just had the most confused face I’ve ever seen.
“I asked him what was wrong and he said there’s a baby. I thought this was impossible as I’m on the pill. And he said no there’s a baby coming now and you’re in labour. I didn’t believe him at first but it was the most sickening and frightening thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.”
Hattie says she was on the ‘mini-pill’ as contraception and was not trying for a baby and claims having Graves’ disease means she has been told she will struggle to conceive naturally. Throughout the last nine months, Hattie says she had no symptoms to indicate she was pregnant apart from subtle weight gain.
However, she put this down to an increase in her medication dosage and beginning to eat well and workout again. Hattie said Isla-Grace is the perfect ‘anniversary gift’ as the pair celebrate their one-year anniversary on Sunday, January 25th.
Hattie said: “I honestly could not be happier. It’s the strangest thing that could have happened but it feels normal. With my Graves’ disease it’s a struggle to put on weight so I had actually had my [medication] dosage increase and I thought it was working.
“I used to be quite underweight but I had got back into eating healthy and going to the gym so I was actively trying to put on weight. So the weight gain I had I thought was intentional.”
Hattie and Bailey are now sorting out plans to fly home so they celebrate the news with family and friends. Bailey admits he was shocked when he found out Hattie was in labour but said Isla-Grace is already so loved.
Bailey, also from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, said: “When Hattie woke me up I was a bit out of it. When we got to the hospital I was filling in Hattie’s details as she was in so much pain.
“I heard a massive cry and I ran in to see her and that’s when I found out about the baby. The only thing I could do is to keep Hattie calm and not panic her. We had 10 hours between finding out and her being born.
“It’s weird to explain because you think how can you love someone straight away. We never got to have that bond during pregnancy [as we didn’t know], but as soon as I saw her I fell in love straight away.”