She was born a Burner.
A baby was born in the midst of the chaotic revelry of Burning Man to a mother and father who had no idea they were expecting their first child.
Kayla Thompson, 36, said she had no symptoms of pregnancy and was not showing at all prior to her out-of-the-blue premature birth of a girl, named Aurora, who is currently recovering in a Reno NICU, according to reports.
“It’s an absolute miracle,” dad Kasey Thompson, 39, of Salt Lake City, told the Los Angeles Times.
“Had I known [about the pregnancy], that’s the absolutely last place on this planet I would have been,” he assured.
The couple was in their RV in the predawn hours Wednesday at the festival when Kayla woke up with acute pain in her abdomen.
Before she could blink, Kayla was in labor and had delivered a baby girl in the middle of the couple’s camper, which was parked in the mud-caked Nevada desert.
“I just started yelling for anyone to come help me,” Kasey told the outlet through tears.
“In a matter of minutes, we had an [obstetrician], a NICU nurse, a pediatrician in there — I don’t know where they all came from, they just came.”
Kayla gave birth to Aurora, who weighed 3 pounds and 9 ounces, according to a GoFundMe.
The child was then transported in a helicopter to a neonatal intensive care unit in Reno, which is roughly 120 miles south of the festival.
Dramatically, there was no room for Aurora’s parents, who had to entrust their premature infant daughter to the Burning Man medical staff, who were required for the transport.
“The medical staff at Burning Man grabbed me and just hugged me and said he’s not going to let her out of his sight,” Kasey said. “He kept reassuring me she’s going to be OK.”
Kayla was admitted to the same hospital on Wednesday and discharged on Thursday.
“Even the nurses at the hospital were like, ‘You don’t look like you were pregnant at all,’” Kayla Thompson told the New York Times, adding, “I didn’t have any symptoms.”
Aurora remains in the NICU, but her parents are already joyously celebrating her stabilized health and dramatic entrance into the world.
“She’s just going to light up my sky,” Kasey told the LA Times. “She’s going to be my everything.”
A GoFundMe for the new parents was set up by family and with a goal of covering medical and travel expenses.
“Baby girl arrived weighing 3 lbs 9.6 oz and measuring 16.5 inches long,” the GoFundMe page read.
“Mom and baby are both doing okay, but she will need to stay in the hospital until she is ready to come home,” family said of Aurora.
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