A surprising case: a woman got pregnant while she was pregnant

Rebecca roberts, 39 and Rhys weaver, 43 years old, are the protagonists of a story almost unique in the world. Is that this marriage was one of the strangest phenomena that can occur during pregnancy, which is the superficiality, that is, she got pregnant while pregnant with another baby, which happened – according to a study published in 2008 – in less than ten cases worldwide.

Rebecca realized that something was going on in her tummy as she was carrying Noah, the first child of the marriage, after more than a year of trying to conceive him. The baby’s first images were captured by an ultrasound between 7 and 10 weeks of age. gestation and everything was normal.

However, an ultrasound taken at week 12 showed Noah had a unexpected little sister, her twin Rosalie, which, according to the doctors, was conceived three weeks later from the first. “I got pregnant when I was already pregnant, which was crazy because it’s not supposed to happen,” Rebecca said when speaking with CNN.

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At first, Rebecca and Rhys were concerned about the development of baby Rosalie within the uterus, because it worried them to be behind their brother who could affect their Health at birth. “Because the baby was much smaller than her brother, she might have a problem or not survive. However, they said she was growing steadily and that was a relief, ”the woman commented.

Fortunately, both babies were born by cesarean in September 2020, in its entirety pandemic world. The two had to spend time apart inside neonatal intensive care units, (USIN). Rosalie, born with a weight of 1.1 kg, was sent to a specialized NICU 15 minutes from the NICU where she was Noah, born with a weight of 2.09 kg.

About, Rebecca He said: “She was a drink tiny It could fit in our hands and although Noah was small, you could tell he was a much bigger baby than his sister. It was very difficult. I had a major operation and our babies were also taken to two different hospitals. “The woman revealed that the man was able to return home after three weeks, but Rosalie stayed intensive care for 95 days and arrived home before Christmas.

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What is superficiality

It is called superficiality when a second baby is conceived during pregnancy and is very rare condition in the world. In this sense, Rebecca said: “The doctors realized that the baby was growing at a constant rate three weeks shorter than the first, and that’s when they told me they believed that it was a superfluous pregnancy. I couldn’t believe this had happened to me. But it happened and it’s lovely. It’s like winning the lottery. “Meanwhile, the father felt the same joy:” I was happy to have a child, but even more for the twins. The work is done at once! And then Rebecca did a bit of research and we realized how unique and lucky we were, ”she said in CNN.

With Bienestar spoke with Javier Sapir (MN 77.826), doctor specializing in Gynecology Yes Obstetrics (member of SOGIBA) and specialist in clinical sexology (member of SASH), who explained what superficiality is: “It is a rare disease in women who conceive a second baby being already Pregnant from another baby. This could be due to a rare phenomenon in humans, which consists of the formation of a fetus with another still present in the womb. More precisely, the phenomenon occurs when the ova of different menstrual cycles, unlike what normally happens with heterozygous twins, in the formation of which several eggs are expelled in a single cycle. Even though it is common in animals, it is not in humans and results in double pregnancy O many fetuses with a big difference in their gestational development“, He explained.

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In this sense, the specialist added: “The normal thing is that when a woman becomes pregnant, her body block the ovaries so that they do not let go ova. This way, since they are not released, they cannot be fertilized and there will be no new pregnancy. When this blockage does not take place, a new egg is released, with the possibility that it will be fertilized. When that happens, it is at the time of superficiality ”.

Sapir further explained that superficiality can also be heteropaternal: “These are very rare cases. For this phenomenon to occur, three exceptional situations must coincide ”:

• New ovulation during pregnancy: When an egg is fertilized, the body produces hormones that try to prevent further ovulation.
• A resistant sperm: It should be taken into account that, in case of pregnancy, cervical mucus prevents the passage of sperm, as it includes an antibacterial function against certain microorganisms included in the semen that could cause problems in the embryo.
• Correct implantation of the second embryo: The female body controls the process of implantation of an embryo in the uterus and, in the vast majority of cases, closes the doors to subsequent implantation.

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For the gynecologist Lillian schapiro, from Atlanta, USA, the superfetaciones they are rare for many reasons: “Women in general ovulate once per cycle, releasing one or more eggs simultaneously. If the sperm fertilization when the man is successful, the egg or eggs implant in the uterus, pregnancy begins and there is no longer ovulation. If a woman has twins, two eggs are released at the same time. And in the unusual case of triplets, these eggs are all released in a single ovulation. The identical twins They occur when a single fertilized egg divides. In the case of Rebecca, the egg was fertilized and implanted during the first ovulation and somehow ovulated again during that same cycle. Another egg was also fertilized – it became another embryo – and the two were implanted in the uterus at different times, ”he explained.

Another reason why superfetaciones they are exceptional, underlined Schapiro in agreement with Sapir, it is that once the pregnancy begins, the uterus is not any more a place of hospital implantation. This means that the second embryo “He’s managed to establish himself and grow to a point where we wouldn’t have thought he could.” In this sense, he said: “We hardly ever see when two embryos start to develop at different times. It is simply amazing. “

Rebecca confessed that before conceiving Noah, she had just taken a dose of the medicine for herself fertility made for stimulate ovulation, which could be one of the reasons for the superfluity, although also – as the woman put it – it could be a “medical wonder”.