Woman got pregnant during pregnancy and gave birth to twins

Many women are interested in the question: is it possible to get pregnant during pregnancy. Usually gynecologists look at such ladies condescendingly and explain that nature is blocking this process. After conception, a hormone begins to be released in the body of the expectant mother, which stops the production of eggs. So the sperm simply has nothing to cling to. However, doctors are a little cunning: in medicine, there are cases when "double" conception did occur. One such case happened recently: the Englishwoman Rebecca Roberts gave birth to two babies with a difference in conception of three weeks.

How can double conception happen?

Rebecca Roberts decided to get pregnant at 38. She already has a child, a 14-year-old daughter, but the family has long dreamed of a second child. It turned out that 

to conceive a baby in adulthood not so simple: Rebecca was diagnosed with secondary infertility and prescribed special medications. Doctors did not rule out that a woman may have to turn to the IVF fertilization procedure. However, everything turned out well, and she managed to get pregnant on her own.

The first ultrasound at 7 weeks gestation showed that Rebecca had a new life under her heart. Doctors saw one fetal egg on the monitor and listened to its heartbeat. However, three weeks later, at the second ultrasound, the expectant mother was told stunning news: a second fetal egg was found in the uterine cavity, and the heart of the new embryo was already beating.

At first, the doctors thought that they simply did not notice another child during the first ultrasound. But after careful measurements, it turned out that the embryos are at different stages of development - which means they were conceived at different times. Presumably, the interval between "double" conception was 2.5-3 weeks for Rebecca.

To say that Rebecca was shocked is to say nothing. The woman did not even imagine that during pregnancy it was possible to become pregnant again. And the doctors admitted that the case superfetations (this is how the fertilization of the second egg is called in medicine after a time after the fertilization of the first) they meet in their practice for the first time. Obviously, the reason was the infertility pills that Rebecca was taking at the time of conception. They did not allow the woman's body to "block" the production of eggs after pregnancy.

 One chance in a million

Such a phenomenon as superfetation is quite common in animals. For example, stray cats and dogs often have pups from different males in the same litter. In the human world, this is quite rare, and is usually associated with hormonal disruption in the mother's body. The highest risk of conceiving a second child "on the sly" of the first is from 1 to 24 days after the onset of the "first" pregnancy. In this case, the second embryo with a high degree of probability will not be able to properly gain a foothold in the uterus and the case will end in miscarriage.

Rebecca Roberts was incredibly lucky: both embryos turned out to be viable and began to develop in parallel with each other. According to doctors, such a chance in case of superfetation falls once in a million. True, in the third trimester, the second child showed problems with the umbilical cord, so at 33 weeks of pregnancy, the woman had to do cesarean section. The "eldest" son was born with a weight of 1.8 kg, and the "youngest" daughter - 1.27 kg. The children underwent their further development in an incubator.

The mother and the babies were discharged from the hospital only two months later, after the doctors were convinced that they were completely healthy. The boy was named Noah, and the girl was Rosalie. “Both of you have become our raison d'être. It was hard, exciting and amazing. When you hold them in your arms, the difference in weight can still be felt. But my little bird will soon catch up with his brother, "- wrote Rebecca on her Instagram

In September, both children turned one year old: despite the different terms of conception, they are considered twins, since they were born on the same day. The photos show that the babies are healthy, vigorous and active, although Rosalie is still half the size of her brother. This case can be considered a real miracle of nature: Rebecca studied all the medical publications that associated with superfetation in humans, and calls herself the 14th woman in the world who was able to get pregnant during pregnancy

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