The truth about babies born ‘pregnant’

Have you ever seen the face of a father when he discovers that the bulge on his adolescent daughter’s tummy is actually a pregnancy and not evidence that he is taking good care of his family (nutritionally)?

Now, think about the same man, going to the hospital to pick his wife who has just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, and he is told that his newborn daughter is carrying a baby inside her!

The man – being a man – may let his mind wonder far and wide. “Did another man come after me?” he may prod his faculties.

In some cultures such an incident would call for weeks of fasting and casting out demons. Sorcerers would make a kill.

In the world of medicine though, this is not unusual. The birth of a ‘pregnant’ baby in Hong Kong, China, in 2015 sparked a heated debate.

Taking cue from what is considered ‘normal’, a majority of people find the phenomenon quite unusual; something that obviously should be investigated.

Dr Martin Okello, a private practitioner who formerly worked at Mwea Mission Hospital, says that a million things could go wrong at any given time.

“Like incomplete separation of a fertilised egg to form two embryos,” he says.

In a case where more than two embryos are developing in the womb, one may have an edge over the others, developing quickly at the expense of the rest.

The stagnated embryos may implant into the developing foetus, hence appearing like a ‘pregnancy’. Conditions ‘favouring’ one foetus over others, says Dr Okello, may come about as part of “natural selection, through which only the fittest survive.”

But that’s not all. Genetics may have an upper hand after all. Chromosomal mutations, says Dr Okello, could lead to several kinds of tragedies. Since DNA controls the growth of a foetus in the womb, a small defect may stop the development of one.

The Hong Kong case did rounds online for its very unusual characteristic: twins inside a newborn.

The baby appeared to have a growth of some kind on her left side, but doctors soon discovered the growth contained what could be ‘absorbed’ siblings.

According to a study published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal this month, scientists call the occurrence fetus-in-fetu, a rare condition which occurs when a partially developed foetus becomes incorporated into a normally developing fetus while in the womb.

This condition is believed to affect about one in 500,000 births, according to the case. Analysis of the mass, which was later removed from the baby, revealed that the absorbed twins could have been up to 10 weeks before their growth stopped.

So far, there is no medical explanation as to why fetus-in-fetu occurs and the actual process. Dr Okello says a variety of factors are at play and it would be difficult to point out exact processes or definite reason.

But more importantly, for any man who may be disturbed that they might have ‘fertilised’ their own baby in the womb, the medic explains that chances of that happening are zero since a developing foetus is protected by impenetrable walls (which also hold the amniotic fluid).