After decades of debauchery and countless conceptions, Burning Man revelers celebrated a rare birth in Black Rock City Wednesday morning after a festival-goer on the Playa unexpectedly went into labor.
“This absolute miracle” said new father Casey, 39, of Salt Lake City, who asked that only family names be used to protect their privacy. “Little did I know [about the pregnancy]this is the last place on this planet I could be.”
The new father said his wife, Kayla, 36, had no symptoms or symptoms when she suddenly went into labor in their van just before dawn. Doctors believe baby Aurora was about a month shy of giving birth when she arrived minutes later, weighing just over 3.5 pounds.
“I just started screaming for someone to help me,” Casey recalled through tears. “In a matter of minutes we received [obstetrician]ICU nurse, pediatrician—I don’t know where they all came from, they just came.”
As luck would have it, a team of medical professionals set up camp right next door. The obstetrician was still in his underwear as he and his pseudo-obstetric team tried to care for the newborn and her mother, scrounging for clean blankets, saline solution and other essentials in the dusty and mud-splattered camp.
The family was transported to the festival's official medical tent, where Kayla's mom held her tiny naked daughter to her bare chest as they waited for the helicopter to take her to the neonatal intensive care unit in Reno. They made the agonizing decision to send Aurora away alone after learning that neither of her parents had anywhere to go with her.
“The Burning Man medical staff grabbed me and just hugged me and told me they weren’t going to let her out of their sight,” Casey said. “He kept reassuring me that she would be fine.”
But the family odyssey was just beginning. The drive to Reno took several hours. Kayla was treated and released from the hospital on Thursday. But baby Aurora remains in the intensive care unit and could face a long stay, according to her family.
“Because this is their first child and the pregnancy was completely unexpected, my brother and his wife have nothing prepared – no baby supplies, no nursery, nothing at all,” the baby's aunt, Lacey Paxman, wrote on her blog. GoFundMe Appeal for the family.
“Most people have nine months to prepare,” she said. “They became parents in the blink of an eye.”
For now, the family is stuck in Reno, although they hope baby Aurora will be transported to a hospital closer to home.
“She just lights up my sky,” Casey said of the fragile newborn he held for the first time Friday. “She will be everything to me.”
Surprise deliveries are rare but far from unheard of, experts say. About one in every 500 pregnant women discovers they are expecting a baby after 20 weeks, a phenomenon known as “mystery pregnancy.”
Mystery pregnancies are more common among very young mothers, as well as those who may have other medical conditions that mask pregnancy symptoms, such as nausea, fatigue, and even a missed period. Like Kayla, some of these parents find out about their pregnancy only during childbirth.
“It was 100% a mystery pregnancy,” Casey said. “No signs, no morning sickness. It didn't even show.”
Pregnant women, young children and even babies are regulars at the nine-day Burning Man festival, which draws tens of thousands of people each year to the desolate swath of the Nevada Desert about 120 miles north of Reno.
Yet in a celebration of “community, art, self-expression and self-reliance,” the birth rate is virtually unheard of. Some longtime Burners have dubbed Aurora “Citizen Zero.”
Her unexpected arrival came just hours after white dust storm stopped incoming traffic as festival-goers poured in Monday and tried to set up camp.
The dramatic weather was reminiscent of the torrential rains that flooded the camp in 2023. leaving thousands of people stranded in deep, sticky mud. More inclement weather is expected over the weekend.
“It’s a miracle because the weather was crazy,” Paxton said. “If she had come an hour or two earlier or an hour or two later, they wouldn’t have been able to get her out.”
