A woman in Arkansas is pregnant with two babies at the same time…except they aren’t twins. ABC News reports:
Doctors successfully located Todd and Julia Grovenburg’s growing baby girl Jillian, but then discovered another smaller baby — what could be Jillian’s younger brother — growing beside her.
The Grovenburgs may have conceived their son Hudson a full two-and-a-half weeks after Jillian, according to statements given to KFSM-TV in Ft. Smith-Fayetteville, Ark.
There’s even a name for what happened: superfetation, or conceiving while pregnant. Unsurprisingly, it’s extraordinarily rare—one doctor said she could only track down 10 reported cases.
Granted, there’s a big problem—what happens to the younger baby when the older fetus is born?
“It [the second conception] can happen up to 24 days later than the first conception, and then you’re putting the second baby at risk for lung development problems,” said [OB-GYN Karen Boyle].
However, in the Grovenburg’s case, Boyle said the difference of two weeks would not put the younger baby at much of a risk for health problems.
Talk about dodging a bullet—though birthdays in the Grovenburg household should be interesting.
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Image: iStockphoto
September 25th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Amazing story. I have never heard of this!
September 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Happened to my mom, according to family lore: my younger sister had a little brother who was stillborn. He was a lot less developed–by, like, two or three months. I always wondered about it: textbooks always tell you that pregnancy hormones suppress ovulation. Now I know.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
tramp!
October 20th, 2009 at 11:37 am
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