'I didn't know I was pregnant until I gave birth'

A woman who did not realise she was pregnant has described giving birth alone at the beauty parlour where she worked before cutting her baby's umbilical cord with eyebrow scissors.

Bryony Mills-Evans said she did not think she wanted children, but was thrust into motherhood at the age of 23 despite having no pregnancy symptoms.

Cryptic pregnancies, where a woman is unaware they are pregnant until late on, or as in Bryony's case, when in labour, have been described as "rare, but not exceptionally rare" by one midwifery professor.

After recently discovering little was known about such pregnancies, Bryony has decided to raise awareness so others who have experienced something similar know they are not alone.