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Just before sunrise on Monday, Kendra Reid awoke suddenly, tip-toed past her sleeping fiancé and headed to the bathroom with a sudden case of abdominal cramps.

In hindsight, the cramps were just like labour pains, but the 23-year-old Ottawa woman had absolutely no reason to believe she was pregnant.

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The past nine months had yielded none of the usual symptoms of pregnancy — no spontaneous vomiting, no cravings and no uterine rumblings. She had always experienced irregular periods, she said, and although she’d gained a few extra pounds, it was not anything pants-splitting.

Still, moments later, Ms. Reid was a mother. “One push later, out pops the baby right into the toilet,” she told CTV. The surprise act of nativity did not even wake her sleeping fiancé.

“Expect the unexpected,” a cheery-sounding Ms. Reid told the National Post by phone from her Ottawa hospital room.

The baby — as yet unnamed and in good condition — weighed more than eight pounds.