Victoria attended the 'Global Change Award' gala, a fashion and sustainability award created by Swedish furniture giant H&M, at Stockholm's iconic City Hall on Wednesday evening.

It was her final appearance in public before giving birth, although she still has a scheduled meeting at the palace on Thursday and a number of events not part of her official calendar.

Victoria and her baby bump. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Her exact due date has not been revealed, but the Royal Palace has previously said that the new baby is expected to be born at some point in March.

In the meantime, it has not escaped some of the more eagle-eyed royal fans' notice that the crown princess has been sporting a baby bump significantly bigger than the one during her last pregnancy with Princess Estelle – fuelling rumours she could be expecting twins.

A smiling Swedish crown princess. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Victoria herself seems to have become so used to fielding probing questions on the matter that she was caught completely off guard on Wednesday by an innocent query about how many royal engagements she had left before the birth.

“Three or four?” asked a reporter. The shocked princess laughed, thinking he wanted to know if it would be triplets or quadruplets and immediately replied, emphatically: “Oh, no, no! No, no!”

Her earnest comments sparked scattered laughter among the crowds as well as Sweden's second-biggest tabloid dedicating an article to the Swedish princess' “baby joke”.

Princess Victoria having fun at Wednesday's gala. Photo:  Anders Wiklund/TT 

Victoria has so far declined to reveal whether her and her husband Prince Daniel's eldest daughter, almost four-year-old Estelle, will be getting a little brother or sister, instead joking with reporters last year: “What she really wants is a hamster!”

Both children will have plenty of cousins to play with. Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia are expecting their first child together just weeks after Victoria and Daniel and months after the royal couple tied the knot at a big ceremony in Stockholm last summer.

Carl Philip and Victoria's sister Madeleine gave birth to the currently youngest member of the Swedish royal family in June, Prince Nicolas. Her and O'Neill's other child, Princess Leonore, will turn two later in February.