A woman who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth Wednesday at the 2025 Burning Man music festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, with the help of a registered nurse attending the event.
Maureen O’Reilly, a registered nurse of 25 years, helped deliver the three-pound baby girl in the Nevada desert, according to ABC 7. The child’s mother was 35 weeks pregnant but didn’t know she was pregnant until she went into labor.
O’Reilly, who is from Berkeley, recounted her experience assisting with the birth to California-based outlet ABC 7.
“She did not look pregnant, not one bit!” O’Reilly said of the child’s mother. O’Reilly told the outlet she was sitting with her festival campmates brewing coffee for everyone when she learned a fellow attendee had given birth.
“My campmates ran over and said ‘Somebody just had a baby!’ And so I just took off. They lifted the baby just as I got into the RV. They were cutting the cord,” she explained.
According to O’Reilly, two other strangers, an emergency nurse and an OBGYN, also offered assistance with the birth. They handed O’Reilly the child, and she “[yelled] at people to turn the heat on [and] to get me some blankets” before medics arrived and took the baby to a mobile hospital.
The baby was eventually airlifted to a local hospital, and O’Reilly visited her and her parents in the NICU, she told ABC7. O’Reilly said that while she never learned the parents’ names, they have called her their “third grandma.”
KTVU identified the child’s parents as Kayla and Kasey Thompson. The couple traveled to the Burning Man music festival from Utah, KTVU reported.
Since the couple didn’t know they were expecting a child, a GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up on their behalf. As of publication, $16,523 has been raised to cover medical expenses and essential baby supplies. (RELATED: ‘Pool Of Blood’: Attendee Found Dead At Popular Festival)
O’Reilly, who has attended 13 Burning Man music festivals, told ABC 7 that this year’s event was “100%, the most memorable thing I’ll ever experience in my life.”
She said the parents named the baby Aurora, as “her presence lit up the sky,” according to the outlet.
The child’s birth follows a homicide investigation that took place at this year’s festival. The festival was also impacted by a powerful dust storm, according to the New York Post.