A British woman discovered during her pregnancy that she was pregnant for the second time, sometime after she had already conceived. This rare phenomenon has a name: “superfetation.”
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They were overjoyed. After more than a year of unsuccessful attempts to conceive, Rebecca Roberts, 39, and her partner, Rhys Weaver, 43, learned they would become parents. “I remember being so happy after the first ultrasound,” the young woman, who lives in Wiltshire, England, told The Washington Post. The person who performed the scan initially told the two Britons that they were only expecting one child.
Two happy events
A few months later, during her third ultrasound, she discovered there were two fetuses in her womb. “I thought something terrible had happened. The sonographer looked at me and said: Do you know you’re having twins? The two babies were been conceived three weeks apart.
David Walker, Rebecca Roberts’ obstetrician and gynecologist (at the Royal United Hospital in Bath), said he had never experienced such a double pregnancy. He told the US newspaper that he had difficulty seeing the second fetus during ultrasounds. “We were worried because the second twin was much smaller. It wasn’t until we did regular scans and saw that the growth was consistently three weeks behind that we realized it was a case of superfetation,” he said.
Only ten cases of superfetation have been reported around the world
Superfetation is a rare phenomenon. “Ovulation did not stop. A new egg was released three to four weeks after the first one. Miraculously, it was able to fertilize and implant in her uterus,” said David Walker. According to a study published in 2008 in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, only ten cases of superfetation have been reported worldwide.
How can this phenomenon be explained? According to the specialist, the British woman’s treatment to stimulate ovulation and fight infertility is not the cause of this superfetation. “The two eggs were not released at the same time, which is what the drug normally does. We have no way to test this superfetation,” he added.
A few weeks after the discovery, the British woman gave birth to both babies by cesarean section. The babies were born healthy, one after the other, in a single delivery. Noah, who weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, arrived first. Two minutes later, Rosalie, who weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces, was born.
References
Page, S. (2021, April 8). Woman gets pregnant while already pregnant, gives birth to twins conceived 3 weeks apart. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/04/08/conceive-baby-while-pregnant/
