How could a baby be born pregnant with twins?
In an incredibly rare case of the condition called fetus-in-fetu, a baby born in Hong Kong was found to be pregnant with her own siblings.…
Is it possible for a baby to be born pregnant? (Shutterstock)
In an incredibly rare case of the condition called fetus-in-fetu, a baby born in Hong Kong was found to be pregnant with her own siblings.
The baby was initially referred to Dr. Yu Kai-man, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong, because the child was suspected to have a tumor; a tumor that turned out to be two fetuses.
SEE ALSO: The 5 strangest cognitive disorders
Since it is impossible for the little girl to have conceived the pregnancy on her own, the fertilization of the twin fetuses, of course, belongs to her parents, which has gone to the wrong place. It was almost impossible to detect during the prenatal check-up, as the embryo inside the baby was too small, said Dr. Yu Kai-man, the South China Morning Post reported.
The case report states the little girl was likely one of a set of triplets, and due to unknown reasons, she absorbed her sibling twins during the mother’s pregnancy. A mass was detected in the baby during a prenatal ultrasound, and investigative surgery was performed when the child was 3 weeks old. The mysterious mass was then discovered to be two fetuses, each with an umbilical cord that linked to a placenta-like mass, located between the liver and the kidneys.
“Weird things happen early, early in the pregnancy that we just don’t understand,” said Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Pittsburgh, told Live Science. “This is one of those medical mysteries.”
Fetus-in-fetu
Sometimes you can be a twin and not even know it. (Shutterstock)
Fetus-in-fetu, commonly referred to as vanishing twin syndrome, only occurs in 1 out of 500,000 births. There are fewer than 100 cases ever documented, and fewer still that involve triplets.
One of the most well-known cases of fetus-in-fetu involved a man in India who presented at the doctor with a swollen stomach doctors assumed was a giant tumor. During surgery, however, doctors discovered the tumor was actually the man’s absorbed twin.
Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, who performed the man’s fetus-in-fetu surgery, explained to ABC News the absorbed twin was acting as a parasite, growing inside the patient’s body, feeding off his blood supply. This is why the absorbed twin lasted for so long inside the body; the blood supply was acting as a life-long placenta.
SEE ALSO: 13 strange but true tips you never knew about health
“He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside,” a female doctor assisting Mehta said of the surgery. “First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair.”
In other reported fetus-in-fetu cases, the absorbed twin becomes calcified, turning to stone. These fetuses can be carried with an individual for decades before they begin to cause problems and must be removed.
