Woman who thought she had food poisoning gives birth to surprise baby

Chrystal Amerson, who also has an 18-month-old son, says she's didn't feel many symptoms during her first pregnancy and didn't seem to put on much weight.

A woman who woke up to what she believed were the consequences of a bad dish of General Tso's chicken was stunned to deliver an unexpected baby three hours later.

Crystal Gail Amerson, 29, thought food poisoning was responsible for the stomach pains that woke her up around 4 am on Sunday, The Pensacola News Journal reported.

The mother, of Pensacola, Florida, who didn't know she was actually 37 weeks pregnant, spent more than an hour taking trips to the bathroom.

'I had Chinese food the night before and I kind of figured maybe I had food poisoning or something like that,' she told the newspaper.

As the pain escalated, Amerson woke up her fiance, Brian Westerfield, 26, telling him they should call an ambulance.

'The stomach pains were just excruciating and I could hardly move,' she said.

Amerson then learned the real source of her stomach ache when she delivered her second child.

Her son, a 19-inch, five-pound baby named Oliver James, entered the world in the back of the ambulance en route to the hospital.

Some women sometimes do not find out they are pregnant until they are about to give birth. If they have an irregular menstrual cycle, that can make the pregnancy even harder to spot.

Amerson, who also has an 18-month-old son, says she's didn't feel many symptoms during her first pregnancy and didn't seem to put on much weight.

'I gained a little bit of weight, but I think with my first baby I didn't notice either,' she added.

'I never gained that pregnancy shape, really. And then I wear scrubs to work because I work at a retirement home for Alzheimer's and dementia patients. So I guess the way they fit me as well, it was hard to notice anything or tell anything.'

Although the Chinese food was absolved of blame, Amerson says she may never be able to enjoy it as she once did.

'That's what I was telling my mother-in-law, I think I'm traumatised from Chinese food,' she said. 'I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at it the same way again.'