You can get pregnant while you’re already pregnant — and we don’t mean twins --[Reported by Umva mag]

You’d think that being pregnant would mean you don’t have to worry about, well, getting pregnant — but you’d be wrong.

You can conceive again while already being months along, meaning you’re carrying two separate pregnancies at once. The proper term for it is superfetation.

It’s rare, but it’s a thing. In fact, a 2008 study on the phenomenon found fewer than 10 reported cases, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, with multiple reported cases in the past decade.

In 2020, then 39-year-old Rebecca Roberts and her partner Rhys Weaver, 43, were looking at the ultrasound of their baby boy Noah, who they had conceived 12 weeks earlier — only to find he had company.

While Rebecca had been pregnant with him, she’d fallen pregnant with their little girl Rosalie. The two babies were conceived about three weeks apart.

‘We feel really lucky, it’s so lucky to have twins anyway but to have such special twins, it’s so lovely, it’s wonderful, they are a blessing,’ she said.

Doctors told Rebecca they believed it to be a case of superfetation, and she couldn’t believe how unique her pregnancy was.

‘I didn’t even know that existed. Even my midwife found it baffling,’ she said.

Despite there being a chance the second baby can die during pregnancy, children’s clothes maker Rebecca gave birth to Noah, weighing 4lb 10oz, and Rosalie, weighing 2lb 7oz, on September 17, 2020, at Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Because of her tiny size, Rosalie was taken to the bigger St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol, where she stayed for 95 days to grow stronger.

Noah was well enough to stay in Bath but needed treatment in hospital for three weeks, before going home to meet his 14-year-old sister Summer.

Why does superfetation occur?

Dr Deepali Misra-Sharp tells Metro.co.uk how superfetation is physically possible. ‘Under normal circumstances, when a woman becomes pregnant, several processes occur that should make further conception nearly impossible,’ she explains.

Essentially when you fall pregnant, your body begins ovulation suppression where progesterone and oestrogen levels rise significantly to maintain the uterine lining and prevent further ovulation.

These stop the release of LH and FSH which are needed to trigger the release of an egg from the ovary,’ according to Dr Misra-Sharp.

Your cervical mucus plug should also form at the entrance to the cervix which the doctor explains ‘acts as a physical barrier, preventing sperm from entering the uterus during pregnancy’.

When it comes to superfetation, these processes don’t work as effectively as they should.

‘Although rare, it is possible for a woman to ovulate again during pregnancy if the hormonal suppression doesn’t completely shut down the reproductive cycle,’ Dr Misra-Sharp.

‘A second egg can be released from the ovaries, and if sperm is present (whether from recent intercourse or sperm already in the reproductive tract), it can fertilise this new egg.’

The embryo will then implant in the womb alongside the already growing baby, meaning you’re pregnant while pregnant.

And Rebecca isn’t the only one…

Mother Jordan Parks, who fell pregnant in February 2019, was shocked to discover this had happened to her when she was told she was carrying two babies conceived more than a week apart.

Jordan’s son was ten weeks and two days old, and her daughter was just nine weeks, when she went for her first scan.

It was a particularly big shock because Jordan had previously struggled with infertility.

‘I couldn’t believe I was going to have two babies, and then this incredibly rare thing had happened to me where I had gotten pregnant twice, after believing I’d never be pregnant again. It was crazy,’ she said.

‘I was looking at them and one was so much bigger while the other just looked like a little tiny marble.’

San Francisco native Odalis Martinez De La O became a superfetation case study when she gave birth in August 2021 to twins conceived five days apart.

‘I think even the ultrasound nurse was a bit confused too, but did her best to normalise the situation,’ she said.

The same went for mum Gabriella Christmas who fell pregnant to two babies, three weeks apart. The Bedfordshire mum gave birth to Eduardo and Ezra via C-section in July 2018 and, despite the age gap, both were happy and healthy.

Eduardo – who was the first conceived – weighed 6lbs 4oz, while Ezra came in at 4lbs 6oz.

Cara Winhold, from Texas, had suffered three miscarriages before falling pregnant while she was already pregnant in March 2021. Baby Colson Winhold and his little brother Cayden were conceived a week apart but born at 4am on October 25 2021 – just six minutes apart.

The mum said: ‘On the very first scan there was a sac with one baby and then when I went back there was a really tiny little sac in the corner that had another baby in it.

‘You could see baby A [Colson] was more developed, whereas the other one was like a tiny dot.’

In an even rarer turn of events, mum-of-four Deonna Fletcher fell pregnant in the spring of 2020 and with her daughter and then, a week later, also conceived twins, meaning she had triplets.

The now mum-of-four had already had her first scan, reported Business Insider, but after getting pains in her abdomen she had a second ultrasound which revealed her later conceived twins.

Her doctor told her that she must have ovulated twice and she was one of the rare cases of superfetation.

Deonna gave birth via C-section on January 18, 2021, to girls Dream, Amani and Amber. She also gave birth to another child Antonio Junior in 2022.

How rare is superfetation?

‘Medically, it’s considered an anomaly,’ Dr Misra-Sharp explains. ‘It’s important to distinguish between superfetation and more common conditions like twinning (both fraternal and identical), which often get confused with it.

‘The key difference is that superfetation involves eggs released and fertilised  at different times, often weeks apart, while twins result from eggs fertilised at the same time.’

The doctor explains that you can usually detect superfetation through perinatal ultrasounds and that, as the pregnancy progresses scans will usually show that the two foetuses are at different stages of development.

‘One will be visibly smaller or younger than the other, often by a few weeks,’ she adds. ‘In cases of twinning, even if there are size differences, the foetuses are generally of the same gestational age, and any size differences would be attributed to growth issues.’

Risks, complications and prevention

While all the above stories have a happy ending, there are very real risks that come with cases of superfetation.

‘Both babies will typically be born at the same time, even though they were conceived weeks apart,’ Dr Misra-Sharp explains.

‘Since the uterus cannot remain pregnant once labour begins, both foetuses must be delivered together, regardless of their respective developmental stages.’

This means the second baby can be born premature resulting in health issues like respiratory distress, feeding difficulties, and low birth weight.

‘However, babies born after 34 weeks generally have good outcomes with appropriate neonatal care,’ the doctor adds.

Growth discrepancies in the womb can be another issue with superfetation. ‘The second foetus may face growth restrictions due to the uterine environment,’ she explains.

‘Since the first pregnancy is already well-established, the second foetus may have less access to nutrients or space, leading to complications such as intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR).’

Miscarriage is another concern or even early labour because the two simultaneous pregnancies could strain the uterus, and it’s common for these pregnancies to result in a C-section delivery rather than a vaginal birth.

So, should you panic? Dr Misra-Sharp says absolutely not.

‘Fortunately, superfetation is so rare that it’s not something most women need to actively worry about. Normally, pregnancy itself serves as a natural form of contraception,’ she explains.

But if you’ve undergone fertility treatments (which encourage multiple ovulations) you could be slightly more likely to experience it.

‘If there’s a delay in the first embryo implanting, or if a woman has a disorder that causes her to ovulate more frequently or unpredictably, this might increase the risk of superfetation,’ the doctor adds as another potential cause.

The only surefire way to completely prevent this is to stop having sex as soon as you fall pregnant, and even then sperm can stay alive in the vagina for seven days.

You can never be too careful.

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