A woman expecting twins has fallen pregnant with a third baby in a rare phenomenon that has pregnant women everywhere just a little nervy.
The American mum shared her incredible story on her TikTok account TheBlondeBunny1, which now appears to have been removed. The first time mum revealed she’s 17 weeks pregnant with ‘triplets‘ – however, the third baby was actually conceived 10 or so days after her twins.
How can you get pregnant while pregnant?
How is it so? The rare pregnancy occurrence is known as superfetation – when the hormonal changes during pregnancy don’t stop the release of eggs. It basically means ovulating twice in one month, and if you happen to have fallen pregnant during the first ovulation, it’s possible to fall pregnant again during the second ovulation. And that is what this mum says happened in her case.
“We knew it was two separate pregnancies,” she explained in her video. “When you ovulate, you ovulate for 24 hours. And sperm can live in your body for up to three to five days. So our first two babies are 10 and 11 days older than our third baby.
“Normally your body is supposed to switch up your hormones and stop you from ovulating again once you’re already pregnant. In my circumstance, it did not. About 10 percent of women can ovulate twice a month. Only I think .3 percent get pregnant a second time.
“So technically our babies do have different due dates, luckily they’re close enough that they will be born the same day, so they will all still be considered triplets. So with superfetation, the eggs came at different dates, and so they have different gestational ages.
“Ours are only a few weeks apart but sometimes they can be months apart, and those people actually have to have different due dates. To confirm it was superfetation and not just twin absorption or a malnourished baby the doctors are doing ultrasounds every two weeks.
“And sure enough it’s been hitting every single milestone, growing at a healthy rate, just ten to 11 days behind the first two babies we have.”
The excited mum says that she and her partner ‘hit the jackpot’ after naturally conceiving the twins and then their third baby, and probably won’t have any more children.
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