Woman Gets Pregnant…While Already Pregnant

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babyA 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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Discoblog: Pregnant Woman Discovers She Has an Extra Womb

Image: iStockphoto

September 25th, 2009 11:00 AM Tags: , ,
by Melissa Lafsky in Sex & Mating | 4 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

4 Responses to “Woman Gets Pregnant…While Already Pregnant”

  1. 1.   Christina Viering Says:

    Amazing story. I have never heard of this!

  2. 2.   Helene Says:

    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.

  3. 3.   Christian fellow Says:

    tramp!

  4. 4.   Octomom’s Doc Booted From Society of Reproductive Medicine | Discoblog | Discover Magazine Says:

    [...] Discoblog: The Next Pregnancy Must-Have: A Three-Dimensional Model of Your Fetus Discoblog: Congratulations! You’ve Given Birth to Your Grandchild Discoblog: Woman Gets Pregnant…While [...]

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