Looking forward to a good night’s sleep in her own bed, Leanne Henshaw drifted off mulling over wonderful memories of her African holiday. Sipping cocktails on the beach in her bikini as she listened to the lapping waves, it had been hard to believe that, back home in Liverpool, everyone was shivering in the October chill. She, her taxi driver husband Paul, 47, and their daughters Mollie, 26, Lilly, 18, and Grace, 16, had been having a lovely time, soaking up the sun. She even went horse riding. Since getting home earlier that day, though, she’d been having some tell tale tummy pains.

Creeping out of bed at 4am to use the loo, she was pretty sure her period was starting. But, as she sat on the toilet, something very unexpected happened… she gave birth to an 8lb baby boy!. Leanne, 43, tells The Mirror: "I was absolutely fine all day until I went to bed and woke up with pains, as if I needed the toilet. It felt unbearable. But I thought I was having bad period cramps. "I didn't even think about what was happening until I looked down and saw a head. I was screaming for Paul that I was having a baby.

"Oliver was out before I could even count to 10.” Rushing to her aid after hearing her screams, Paul and Lilly both witnessed Oliver’s birth. "Paul just went into autopilot and reacted the only way he knew how, by picking the baby up and keeping him on his chest until the ambulance arrived," says Leanne. Leanne, who doesn’t work, had no reason to think she was pregnant - especially as she’d had a birth control injection 18 months earlier.

And she’d been drinking and smoking throughout the pregnancy. Fortunately, Oliver is perfectly healthy, but Leanne is still in shock. She says: "I had no symptoms at all. There was no bump, sickness or extra weight and I was still having periods. I've been having birth control injections every three years for 16 years and I was nowhere near due for another.”. Lilly, who owns a sportswear business, is equally astounded. She says of her baby brother’s delivery: "It was the most surreal and crazy experience. Just 48 hours before, my mum was horseback riding on a beach.

"She was wearing a bikini and we had no idea she was pregnant. Mum was in Krakow three weeks earlier doing 30,000 steps a day. The morning Oliver was born, I was sleeping and I could hear my mum screaming from the bathroom. "When I went out, I did not expect to see my dad covered head to toe in blood and holding a baby. The bathroom looked like the scene of a murder. My mum was in shock for about three days but she’s been amazing. Even though she’s had three children, she said she had no idea she was in labour until she saw Oliver’s head.”.

After Paul called an ambulance, mum and baby were taken to hospital, but just six hours later they’d been given the all clear and sent home. With no baby clothes or equipment in the house, friends and family kindly pulled together to buy essentials for the newborn, leaving Leanne with only a pram to get. Lilly laughs: "He's got enough clothes to last him until he's one. Everyone has been amazing, but people didn't believe us at first.".

When she phoned her grandmother and told her about Oliver’s arrival, she actually hung up, thinking it was a prank. "My dad said I’d better call my nan and she told me never to call her at 4am trying to wind her up and put the phone down,” Lilly says. "People thought we were joking." But, despite leaving them all in shock, Oliver is a much loved addition to the family and has given everyone a new lease of life.

Leanne says: "It's the most amazing life now we have Oliver. We feel really alive! He's keeping us young and because my other children are older, we have so much time for him. It's an amazing experience. It’s unbelievable.”. The family are currently in Puerto Rico on a holiday they’d booked before October - so they had to add an extra last-minute passenger, after Oliver’s unexpected arrival. Lilly added: "We're all absolutely obsessed with him.

"Because me and my sisters are older, we don't really make a fuss at Christmas anymore, but this year it was magical because we had Oliver. We love him so much and my dad finally got his boy after 26 years!.”. Surprise, or cryptic pregnancies, happen in approximately one in 2,500 births - meaning there are about 300 annually in the UK. In a cryptic pregnancy the mother is unaware until the very late stages - or even until the delivery - that she is pregnant.