It wasn’t until she was suddenly struck with painful cramp pains during the night that she started freaking out and realised she was giving birth.

A new mum who did not know she was pregnant was left in shock after she went into labour and saw her baby’s head coming out of her vagina.

Karla Akuhata, 41, from New Zealand, thought her bloated tummy was due to work stresses or a medical condition.

It wasn’t until she was suddenly struck with painful cramp pains during the night that she started “freaking out” and realised she was giving birth.

Her son was born right there, on the floor of Karla’s bedroom.

“There was a baby’s head coming out of me, there was nothing else to do but go with it,” she told the NZ Herald.

“It just made sense to stay there. He just lay there and nuzzled and made all the little baby noises.

“I kind of knew from the noises he was making that he was all good.”

Karla has named her son Tamarangi. She said he was a “total surprise” and a “miracle”.

Immediately after the birth, Karla called her mum, who had been making jokes about Karla being pregnant based on her bloating.

She told her mother: “Mum, you know how you were kidding that I might be pregnant? Well, I’ve just had a baby.”

“What the hell Karla,” her mother said then rang for an ambulance before racing back home to see her daughter.

The paramedics cut the umbilical cord before making sure everyone was okay.

Stealth pregnancies like Karla’s are extremely rare, but she’s not the first to experience the phenomenon.

There have been a number of women who didn’t know they were pregnant until they went into labour.

But Akuhata’s case was more shocking because she had always struggled to conceive and had been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

While she gave birth to her other son 15 years ago, she had struggled to fall pregnant since.

“Most people can’t believe it, because I didn’t look pregnant,” she gushed to AM SHow host Ryan Bridge.

“He gets called miracle baby a lot – by me, by his brother and by the community.”

The mum-of-two said she had been overwhelmed with support from friends and family, and decided to share her story even though she thought many people may not believe her.

She said: “I know that by sharing my story in the media I’m going to get a whole lot of judgment from people who may not understand the story or accept it. But it’s worth it to share a bit more love.”