A woman gave birth to a boy after laughing very hard at a pantomime in the UK, according to press reports.

Pregnant Kirsty Reed was in the audience for Cinderella at Plymouth’s Theatre Royal.

Metro reported that she laughed so enthusiastically, she began to experience contractions and that night, she went into labour two weeks early.

Her first child Ruben James Reed was born the next day.

Dockyard worker Ms Reed, 30, said Ruben is "my very own panto baby".

The new mother said: "I laughed all the way through and I think the enjoyment and the laughter helped to bring him into the world."

"I was a bit uncomfortable when we left the theatre, getting cramps, but no sooner had we got in that I was getting pains and my waters broke."

The production of Cinderella features fashion guru Gok Wan and comedy ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, and follows the regular rags-to-riches story of the classic fairy tail.