Baby born pregnant with her own twins
A baby born in Hong Kong was pregnant
with her own siblings at the time of her
birth, according to a new report of the
infant’s case.
The baby’s condition, known as fetus-in-
fetu, is incredibly rare, occurring in only
about 1 in every 500,000 births. It’s not clear
exactly why it happens.
“Weird things happen early, early in the
pregnancy that we just don’t understand,”
said Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and
gynecologist in Pittsburgh, who goes by Dr.
Drai. “This is one of those medical
mysteries.”
The World Health Organization considers a
tiny fetus found within an infant to be a kind
of teratoma, or tumor, rather than a normally
developing fetus.
But the doctors who treated the baby girl
wrote that rather than a teratoma, the tiny
fetuses may instead be the remains of sibling
twins that were absorbed during the
pregnancy.
Missed in check-ups
The newborn baby was referred to Dr. Yu
Kai-man, an obstetrician and gynecologist at
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong,
because the baby was suspected to have a
tumor, according to the case report. The
mother’s prenatal ultrasound had revealed an
unusual mass within the infant, but it was
unclear to the doctors exactly what the mass
was. During surgery, which was done when
the girl was about 3 weeks old, the surgeons
discovered two fetuses between her liver and
her kidney.
One fetus weighed 0.3 ounces (9.3 grams)
and the other 0.5 ounces (14.2 grams) —
corresponding to about 8 and 10 weeks’
gestation, the case report said.
Each of the babies had an umbilical cord that
linked to a placenta-like mass in the girl’s
belly.
The baby girl was obviously too young to
have conceived the fetuses herself. Instead,
it’s likely that the girl was once one of
triplets, the researchers said. Then, for some
mysterious reason, the two smaller fetuses
were absorbed into the body of the remaining
child.
The fetuses would likely have still been alive
and growing when they were absorbed into
the surviving baby’s body. Once there,
however, their development couldn’t proceed
normally, Burch said.
“They need placental flow and all that other
stuff to really grow,” Burch told Live Science.
Vanishing twins?
Fetus-in-fetu may, in fact, be similar to a
surprisingly common phenomenon: vanishing
twin syndrome, Burch said. In many twin
pregnancies, one of the twins is completely
absorbed and “vanishes” into the body of the
other.
“When you do a delivery and you see an
extra placenta and a cord, you say, ‘Oh, it
must have been a twin,'” Burch said.
Fetus-in-fetu has been reported in about 200
cases in the medical literature. In 2006,
doctors in Pakistan removed two fetuses
from a 2-month-old girl named Nazia,
according to NBC News. And in 2011, an 18-
year-old boy had his retained twin removed
in a major surgery, the Seattle Post-
Intelligencer reported.
In rare instances, fetuses that die in utero
can become calcified and turn into stone. In
August 2014, doctors in India removed a
lithopedion, orstone baby, that a 60-year-old
woman had carried in her body for 36 years.
She went to the doctor complaining of
abdominal pain and a lump in her lower
belly.
with her own siblings at the time of her
birth, according to a new report of the
infant’s case.
The baby’s condition, known as fetus-in-
fetu, is incredibly rare, occurring in only
about 1 in every 500,000 births. It’s not clear
exactly why it happens.
“Weird things happen early, early in the
pregnancy that we just don’t understand,”
said Dr. Draion Burch, an obstetrician and
gynecologist in Pittsburgh, who goes by Dr.
Drai. “This is one of those medical
mysteries.”
The World Health Organization considers a
tiny fetus found within an infant to be a kind
of teratoma, or tumor, rather than a normally
developing fetus.
But the doctors who treated the baby girl
wrote that rather than a teratoma, the tiny
fetuses may instead be the remains of sibling
twins that were absorbed during the
pregnancy.
Missed in check-ups
The newborn baby was referred to Dr. Yu
Kai-man, an obstetrician and gynecologist at
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong,
because the baby was suspected to have a
tumor, according to the case report. The
mother’s prenatal ultrasound had revealed an
unusual mass within the infant, but it was
unclear to the doctors exactly what the mass
was. During surgery, which was done when
the girl was about 3 weeks old, the surgeons
discovered two fetuses between her liver and
her kidney.
One fetus weighed 0.3 ounces (9.3 grams)
and the other 0.5 ounces (14.2 grams) —
corresponding to about 8 and 10 weeks’
gestation, the case report said.
Each of the babies had an umbilical cord that
linked to a placenta-like mass in the girl’s
belly.
The baby girl was obviously too young to
have conceived the fetuses herself. Instead,
it’s likely that the girl was once one of
triplets, the researchers said. Then, for some
mysterious reason, the two smaller fetuses
were absorbed into the body of the remaining
child.
The fetuses would likely have still been alive
and growing when they were absorbed into
the surviving baby’s body. Once there,
however, their development couldn’t proceed
normally, Burch said.
“They need placental flow and all that other
stuff to really grow,” Burch told Live Science.
Vanishing twins?
Fetus-in-fetu may, in fact, be similar to a
surprisingly common phenomenon: vanishing
twin syndrome, Burch said. In many twin
pregnancies, one of the twins is completely
absorbed and “vanishes” into the body of the
other.
“When you do a delivery and you see an
extra placenta and a cord, you say, ‘Oh, it
must have been a twin,'” Burch said.
Fetus-in-fetu has been reported in about 200
cases in the medical literature. In 2006,
doctors in Pakistan removed two fetuses
from a 2-month-old girl named Nazia,
according to NBC News. And in 2011, an 18-
year-old boy had his retained twin removed
in a major surgery, the Seattle Post-
Intelligencer reported.
In rare instances, fetuses that die in utero
can become calcified and turn into stone. In
August 2014, doctors in India removed a
lithopedion, orstone baby, that a 60-year-old
woman had carried in her body for 36 years.
She went to the doctor complaining of
abdominal pain and a lump in her lower
belly.
