Tortus Investigates.

I want to use their words rather than my words because they spoke of terror,

of them paralysed, of that fear just taking over, of them not making a sound.

Some of the women might have birthed in their homes, maybe in a quiet room, and they were biting down on pillows. And the fear was so great,

they still could not go and tell them. Sylvia Murphy is a midwife and public health researcher

at the University of Limerick in Ireland.

She's one of the few people to have researched the phenomenon of concealed pregnancies.

In 2013, she put an advert in an Irish newspaper calling for women who'd hidden their pregnancies

to get in touch.

30 women came forward from all over the country and from different backgrounds, but one thing

united them during their pregnancies. Fear. Fear of telling their families,

fear of losing their job,

or fear of their abusive partners.

And they coped really by telling nobody

or on occasion maybe one or two people may know

but generally keeping the pregnancy hidden and concealed from the outside world.

Most of the mothers she talked to ended up getting help before they reached full-term pregnancy,

but a few of them never told anyone and ended up giving birth alone.

Women who risk giving birth unassisted are generally young and or have had significant trauma in their lives.

So just to get that clear,

the women you spoke to who had given birth unassisted were young and they'd had significant trauma in their lives.

That is the train that you saw.

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