Sammy Evans had no idea she was pregnant when she visited her GP with a hard lump near her ribcage.
The 41-year-old woman had assumed it could be a hernia or a pulled muscle from her regular ab workouts, but after two doctors examined her, Sammy was told she could actually be pregnant.
As reported by the Mirror newspaper, mum-of-one had gone months without a period but believed she was entering perimenopause, while significant weight loss following gastric band surgery meant she had barely developed a bump.
A pregnancy test at the surgery initially came back negative. However, a second doctor spotted what appeared to be a faint line and advised Sammy to test again at home.
She did, and the result was positive, although she still did not realise she could be nine months pregnant.
Later that night, Sammy developed stomach cramps and went to A+E, and a quick ultrasound left medics stunned when they spotted a baby.
Sammy said: “They did blood tests and then some doctor said to me that he wasn’t trained in ultrasounds but he’d do a quick scan just to see if there was a baby. So he does the scan and he started saying ‘Oh, there's a leg. There's an arm. There's the back.”
At around 7am the following morning, she messaged her partner, Triston McKend, 38, to tell him she was pregnant.
She initially believed she might be in the early stages of pregnancy and could be losing the baby. But medics quickly corrected her.
“And then another lady came in and said ‘you're in labour," she recalled. “I said ‘sorry, no, I can't be’ and she said ‘no, no, you are. That baby's coming.”
Just five hours after arriving at hospital, Sammy gave birth to healthy Noah, weighing 8lb 1oz.
The experience left her struggling to process the sudden arrival of her son.
She added: “I was a little bit like, 'oh God, is he real?' I just couldn’t process it. I wouldn't say there was a bond straight away.
"It was just ‘Oh my gosh, that's my baby.’ And then you know, even the next day, I heard a baby crying in the room, and I was like ‘What’s that noise?’
"Now I’ve adjusted and I just think he is so cute. I think babies are always a blessing.”
Sammy believes her pregnancy went unnoticed partly because she had lost 10st after her gastric band operation and gained only around 3lb between May and giving birth.
She had also remained remarkably active, attending a concert, playing football, completing a four-hour bike ride and even taking part in water aerobics just 12 hours before going into labour.
Her partner is now temporarily moving to Bournemouth to help care for their surprise new arrival.