A soon-to-be mother is sharing her incredible pregnancy journey with a rare case of superfetation twins on TikTok and this one has us stunned.
Superfetation Twins
The US woman who posts under the handle @theblondebunny1 revealed that she and her fiance had naturally fallen pregnant with twins and were ecstatic about the news. But while twins are over joyous and slightly terrifying enough, the couple were then told they had conceived again…10 days later.
“The first two babies are 10 and 11 days older than our third baby, so that’s how we knew straight away it was a second pregnancy,” she explained in one of her videos.
“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 10 to 11 days behind the first two babies we have.”
The woman explained to her 2352.K followers that due to her hyperovulating (which is where both ovaries release an egg in a cycle) a third child had been conceived growing her family by three in the one hit.
What is superfetation?
The phenomenon of pregnancy occurring during an initial pregnancy is known as superfetation and means a second fertilised egg is implanted in the womb days and sometimes even weeks after the first. But all babies are usually born on the same day making them twins, or in this case triplets.
The woman, who describes herself in one of her videos as a retired athlete, marketing guru and cheese connoisseur, has filmed a number of videos answering the questions of her very curious followers.
She explained the concept of hyperovulating, confirmed she does not have two uteruses and will be sharing a gender reveal of her bubs in the coming weeks.
“So in some circumstances women can actually get pregnant months later,” she explained in one video.
“This happened to us just because my hormones didn’t stop me from ovulating, I ovulated another time. Lucky enough though they’re close enough that they’ll all have the same due date we just need to get the third baby past the 28 week mark which is really that red zone and hopefully carry them through to that 32, maybe even 35 weeks.”
How common is superfetation?
While she and her partner are overjoyed at the circumstances they’ve found themselves in, she did have a warning for other couples. “So when your man doesn’t want to use protection because you’re already pregnant – I would be cautious.”
Superfetation is very rare though only affecting 0.3 per cent of women. And unfortunately, the second baby doesn’t always survive making the numbers even harder to estimate. Most doctors don’t recommend it is as something to worry about if you are already pregnant.
The couple is planning for an April or May birth and think they may be ‘three and done’ on the whole having kids thing. “Natural birth, we’re really excited. We hit the jackpot, it’s our first pregnancy, and we’ve got three coming at once. So probably going to be my last as well.”
This article was first published in KidSpot and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
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