It’s a good thing that a couple traveling to Burning Man from Utah came in a comfy RV, because the wife did not know she was pregnant, and had a baby during the event in a freak medical occurrence.
This year’s Burning Man event is now once and for all over, and the 2025 iteration was a “circle of life” occurrence for the ages. We learned Sunday morning that someone appeared to have been murdered on Saturday night at Burning Man, and Pershing County authorities are still scrambling to identify even the victim, let alone a suspect. But the Chronicle had a surprising story on Friday that someone gave birth to a baby at Burning Man, though the details at the time were quite vague and had little confirmation.
But now we have specific details and confirmation, and yes this surprising tale is true. KTVU spoke with family members of the new parents, Kayla and Kasey Thompson. Kasey Thompson’s sister Lacey Paxman tells KTVU that Kayla woke in the couple’s RV with abdominal pains Wednesday morning, which she didn’t realize were labor pains, as she did not know she was pregnant. Fellow Burning Man attendees who were nurses or had medical backgrounds rushed to assist, including one OB-GYN who was still wearing only his underwear.
Many of you are probably wondering why she went to Burning Man so pregnant, or how a person could not know they were pregnant. But it’s an actual medical condition known as a cryptic pregnancy, wherein the mother does not know she is pregnant, and this condition affects about one out of every 2,500 births. The family insists the Thompsons would not have gone to Burning Man had they known Kayle was pregnant and so close to birth.
"It's 100% a cryptic pregnancy. I mean, there were no signs of pregnancy,” Paxman told KTVU. “We were, as a family, at a lake the weekend prior. She was in a swimming suit. She did not look pregnant. I was as shocked as everybody else.”
The three-pound, 9.6-ounce baby girl now named Aurora was airlifted to a neonatal ICU in Reno. Though in an anguishing move for the new parents, they had to travel separately in an ambulance. There was not enough room for them on the helicopter.
The family has established a GoFundMe to support the Burning Man baby. “Since this is their first child and the pregnancy was completely unexpected, my brother and his wife don’t have anything prepared—no baby supplies, no nursery, nothing at all,” Paxman says on the GoFundMe. “On top of that, the unexpected circumstances have created a heavy financial burden: NICU care (with no release date yet), medical bills, and travel and lodging expenses while they are far from home.”
A Monday update from Salt Lake City’s KUTV has very encouraging news about the new Burner family. "Mom and dad and baby, they're all doing well," the baby’s grandmother Shauna Thompson told that station. "Baby is progressing and getting stronger every day. Mom and dad are so in love with Aurora and they're going to be amazing parents."
Image via GoFundMe
