A woman who feared she had caught the Center Parcs bug had the surprise of her life when she gave birth to a baby girl.

Xanthe Dunford, of Thornhill Road, Warminster, spent the past nine months unaware she was pregnant until she rushed to The Avenue surgery with stomach cramps and sickness.

Doctors immediately realised the 22-year-old was in labour and she gave birth to baby girl Mia Caitlin weighing 6lb 13oz minutes later.

The new mum, a secretary at Center Parcs where last month a stomach bug hit over 100 staff and guests, had been lifting beer barrels at her part-time bar job at the John Barleycorn pub, Warminster, just two days before she gave birth.

She said: "I woke up at 4am and was sick three times so I immediately thought I had the Center Parcs bug, or at worst appendicitis. By the morning it hadn't got any better so I drove to the surgery on my own.

"I got there as soon as it opened and a doctor saw me in a treatment room and carried out some tests on my stomach. I will always remember his face he just looked at me and said 'I think you might be pregnant'. I can't repeat what I said."

Xanthe and Mia were taken to Frome Maternity Unit where the new mum spent the next few days coming to terms with the shock and greeting a queue of visitors.

She said: "Because I had no time to prepare or think about it the birth just sort of happened, it seemed very easy. Luckily it appears Mia wasn't born premature but we will never know because we cannot be sure when she was conceived.

"Then I realised I had been smoking and drinking and even lifting barrels of beer at work without realising I was pregnant. But we have both been given a clean bill of health."

Miss Dunford said she knew she had put on weight but put it down to sitting at a desk too much while working at Center Parcs.

Her mother Julie Plomer rushed to the maternity unit after hearing of the birth at 10.45am on March 18.

She said: "When I got the phone call from the doctor they asked me to sit down and I thought something terrible was going to happen. I think we have both got over the shock of Mia now and are looking forward to telling her the whole story."

The family thanked Center Parcs, staff at The Avenue surgery and Frome Maternity Unit and everyone who has sent baby clothes and cards.