Pregnant Woman Falls During TikTok Sprinting Trend, Says She 'Just Wanted to Induce Labor' (Exclusive) Ashley VegaAugust 21, 2025 at 5:19 AM iconicole.
- - Pregnant Woman Falls During TikTok Sprinting Trend, Says She 'Just Wanted to Induce Labor' (Exclusive)
Ashley VegaAugust 21, 2025 at 5:19 AM
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Nicole Atkins' TikTok -
Nicole Atkins attempted a TikTok sprinting trend to naturally induce labor at 38 weeks pregnant
Moments into the run, her legs gave out and she fell, prompting a hospital visit
Though she and her baby were unharmed, the viral video sparked both support and scrutiny online
Nicole Atkins, 38 weeks pregnant and no stranger to a trending TikTok, decided to join a viral challenge to help induce labor and captured a fall that sent her straight to the hospital.
"I saw the TikTok trend of sprinting to induce labor, and I saw how slow everyone runs," Nicole tells PEOPLE. "Like they think they're running fast and look back at it and see how slow they are, so I thought it'd just be funny to see how slow I was running."
Nicole had been active throughout her pregnancy and felt confident that giving the trend a try would be harmless. "I was also 38 weeks pregnant, so I was trying to induce labor before I had to get an induction," she says.
What began as a girls' night experiment quickly turned into something much more serious. "I was going to start running, and then my legs just kind of went numb, and I fell," Nicole says.
The fall shocked her. "When I fell, it's kind of like I blacked out a little bit," she recalls. "I was kind of in shock, and I needed a second to figure out what was happening, and afterwards I got really, really shaky."
Doctors weren't able to pinpoint a specific cause for the sudden collapse. "No doctor really said anything, but I guess it just happens," Nicole explains. "People's legs kind of give out, and I'm assuming he [the baby] must have been on some sort of nerve."
Despite the scare, both mom and baby were unharmed. "I went to the doctor to make sure everything was okay," she says. "They monitored me for a while, he was perfectly healthy, I was healthy, and there were no issues."
Taylor Plattor Photography
Nicole Atkins
Contrary to what some viewers assumed, Nicole didn't fall on her stomach. "I fell straight on my knee and my hands, so I wasn't worried about hitting my stomach," she says.
The moment of the fall is still a blur. "It was literally the last thing I thought would possibly happen," Nicole tells PEOPLE. "I think I definitely was in shock when I realized I had fallen."
She didn't post the video right away. "I posted it like a week later, just because I kept seeing the running videos after that," she says. "A lot of the people that do it aren't active during their pregnancy, and I was, so I thought for sure I could do it."
Nicole didn't set out to go viral. She wanted to share the other side of the trend. "I was like, I should post this to give the other side," she says. "So many people were picking up on the trend, and I wanted to make people a little more cautious of what could happen."
She assumed the video would stay within the pregnancy TikTok community. "I was really expecting it just to reach other pregnant people," Nicole says. "I was not expecting it to full-blown go out there."
The responses were immediate and intense. "There's a lot of people saying how dumb I am, and like I should expect that to happen," she says.
But there were also voices of support in the mix. "Other comments were like, she was literally just trying to run," she shares. "Pregnant women can run. I run after my toddler all the time, so I didn't think anything crazy of it."
Nicole says the experience opened her eyes to how much judgment pregnant women face. "You're just under a ton of scrutiny from other people, and they think you have to [develop] this bubble around you and you can't do anything anymore, which is so untrue," she says.
The backlash extended beyond just the fall, with people criticizing the other content on her page. "People took that video and started going to my pole [dancing] videos, calling me out for not caring about my baby because I'm doing pole," Nicole says. "Which is a perfectly healthy thing to do."
She emphasizes that sticking with her usual routines was never reckless. "Sticking with your activities that you did before… I don't think people realize that pregnant women can keep doing what they were already doing," she notes.
Still, she knew when to pull back. "Things that I did before, I mellowed down if I felt unsafe," Nicole explains. "But I never did anything on purpose, and I didn't do it for the TikTok trend. I literally did it to induce labor."
"I had a scheduled induction, and I preferred to not be on Pitocin, so I was trying to do what I could to induce it naturally," she continued.
Nicole Atkins
Nicole Atkins and her children
She doesn't regret trying the trend, though she wishes people would understand the full context. "There are certain trends that I think are really dumb," she says. "I didn't think that was one of them, but I never thought about the risk."
Now a mom of two, Nicole says life has been treating her well. "It's been better than I thought it would be," she says. "It's been easier than I thought it'd be, but he's a very chill baby, so we've been doing really well."
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As her video continues to circulate online, Nicole wants to correct the misconceptions it's sparked. "A lot of people are saying I didn't care because I'm wearing a dress and I'm in flip flops or I'm in heels," she says. "I was not in a dress. I was in a romper, because that's the only thing that could fit me and that I could freely move in."
She adds that she was dressed appropriately for movement. "I was also wearing tennis shoes," Nicole says. "I was not wearing sandals or heels."
As the dust settles and the comments keep coming, Nicole offers an honest look at the unpredictability of pregnancy and the scrutiny mothers face, even when participating in common TikTok trends.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
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