Baby boy Joshua Joseph born to ‘Virgin Mary’ over Christmas in Peterborough

Mother-to-be Lauren Conte knew she was tempting fate when she decided to dress up as the Virgin Mary “as a bit of a joke.”

The 33-year-old GP receptionist was nearing her due date when she and husband Luke agreed to pull a joke on her family at Christmas dinner.

Lauren told the Peterborough Telegraph how they put their plan into action: “My baby was due on the 27 of December and we had a running joke within the family that the baby was going to arrive on Christmas Day.

“As a bit of a joke, I decided I was going to dress up as the Virgin Mary to surprise my family when we went round for dinner.

“We did toy with the idea of my husband dressing up as Joseph but we thought we’d be getting a bit too carried away.”

Aided by classic car restorer Luke, Lauren went to her parents’ house, as planned, in Thorney, for Christmas dinner.

Somewhat coincidentally, Lauren’s folks already had a jest of their own in place. Lauren explained:

“They’d put a notice on their front door that said ‘Bethlehem - no vacancies’, which I didn’t know they were planning on doing.”

“So when I got there I was knocking on the door to get in and my dad came down the side [passage] saying ‘there’s no room at the inn’.

“I then go around the side and he sees that I’m dressed up as the Virgin Mary - he absolutely wet himself laughing.”

Lauren’s waters finally broke on Christmas Day evening.

After a lengthy labour, the couple’s first baby – a boy – was born at Peterborough Hospital at 5pm on Boxing Day.

Rather fittingly, the bouncing babe-in-arms was named Joshua Joseph.

However, Lauren confessed that they very nearly came up with a different name entirely, though still with a biblical theme.

“We did nearly call our little boy Matthew, because in our family we would’ve had a Matthew, a Mark, a Luke and a John.”

Laughing, she adds: “We’ve got a bit of a sense of humour in our family.”