Thirty-nine-year-old Rebecca Roberts and her partner were thrilled when an at-home pregnancy test came back positive. They were also a little shocked because they had been struggling with infertility for years.
During her first sonogram appointment, the obstetrician noted she was carrying a single baby and everything looked normal, The Washington Post reports. Then a second surprise came,
When Roberts, who lives in Wiltshire, England, returned five weeks later for her 12-week ultrasound, she received some shocking news. She told The Post, “The sonographer looked at me and was like, ‘do you know you’re expecting twins?’”
However, she wasn’t carrying your quintessential set of twins. Roberts was diagnosed with a rare condition known as superfetation, where a woman who is already pregnant conceives a second baby.
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Her obstetrician, David Walker, ran a multitude of scans before he could confirm it, saying he’d never seen it in his 25 years as a doctor.
“It just doesn’t happen,” Walker said.
The condition is so rare, there isn’t an exact figure on how many cases of superfetation have occurred, but a 2008 study in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology estimated fewer than 10 cases had been reported at that time.
Typically when someone becomes pregnant, the body undergoes hormonal changes that impede it from conceiving again at that time.
“Instead of stopping ovulation, she released another egg about three or four weeks after the first one, and the egg somehow miraculously managed to fertilize and implant in her uterus,” Walker said.
Roberts had a Caesarean section on Sept. 17, 2020, to deliver both babies. The oldest, Noah, was 4 pounds, 10 ounces, and the youngest, Rosalie, was 2 pounds, 7 ounces.
Due to their premature state, both babies were taken to the neonatal intensive care unit, where Noah spent three weeks and Rosalie for 95 days.
Now, healthy and at home, Roberts tracks the twins development via Instagram.
“We want people to be able to continue to watch as they grow up,” said Roberts. “Miracles can happen, and my children are proof of that.”
