Strangers Come Together to Deliver Baby Girl at Burning Man

Last edited Sat Aug 30, 2025, 04:27 AM - Edit history (1)

A woman unexpectedly went into labor at the desert festival. Within minutes, a neonatal nurse, an OB-GYN, a pediatric doctor and other attendees filled her camper.

By Alexandra E. Petri
Aug. 29, 2025

Kayla Thompson and her husband, Kasey Thompson, were asleep in their R.V. camper at their first Burning Man festival on Wednesday morning when she awoke in pain. She thought it might be something she ate, or worse, her appendix.

The rain had stopped, but the desert playa that stretched infinitely around their camper was mucky and filled with puddles from a storm that had pummeled the Southwest. Ms. Thompson’s cramping was unrelenting. The couple knew they needed medical help, but they did not anticipate what would happen next: Minutes later, Ms. Thompson was giving birth to their first child, a 3-pound, 9-ounce baby girl, in the bathroom of their camper.

The couple had not been planning for a child and had no idea that Ms. Thompson was pregnant.

“Even the nurses at the hospital were like, ‘You don’t look like you were pregnant at all,’” Ms. Thompson, 37, who works in medical billing, said, adding, “I didn’t have any symptoms.”
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/us/burning-man-baby.html